New Life (Re-written)
by lllBluebirdlll
Summary: (Sequel to the re-written version of "New start") Years had passed since Mike, Sarah, Billy and Zoe took in the new AIs with them and Mike and Sarah's daughter is starting to take interest in becoming the younger of the three AI's driver against her parent's wishes, some recent events have the whole group on edge about an old skeleton that refuses to die (Full summary inside)
1. 1 New Start

**Part two of the three part series (** New Start **\- New Life -** New Ride **)**

 **Chapter 1**

 **New start**

Many things have happened since KIRA started her official training with KITT, as time went on she was granted with new software and applications as well as with access to some information she hadn't been able to access to before, old cases and even a thing or two about the original foundation that started with the AI program, slowly she acquired most of the answers to her questions of how she managed to end up where she was at the time and after months of intense training she was granted access to start going on a few missions with KITT or KIFT from time to time to get some first-hand experience on what she could face in the future. Even though she had learned much about her human companions and the older AIs there was still much that she didn't know, KIFT had once talked to KITT about letting her access the files that contained all the cases and attacks related to KARR since it would be useful information for her to have if anything of the same nature ever happened; the two hoped that they were free from him after the last time but after all that they had witnessed it looked like the corrupted AI was one annoying bug that wouldn't die, and no matter what they tried it would always come back one way or another…on the other side KITT thought that it would be better to spare her of those worries if possible, yes there would be a time when she would need to know and he was going to be the one to tell her, but as long as the situation didn't call for it in his mind it was better to leave things the way they were.

On a different note things were also going well for the humans involved in more ways than one; for starters Mike had finally brought himself to asking Sarah out in a more serious manner for a few more months until he broke the question out to her one night, of course she had said yes and everything had worked out perfectly for the four humans and the three AIs, aside from that recent cases that they had solved with the help of one or two of the AIs with them were noticed by some of the more important government agencies and a few offered them a space to work with them when they needed in exchange for some funding to change locations as well as specialized personal to fill up some of the much needed positions left unattended by the current small team of workers, this had happened just over a year ago.

The relocation for the new SSC had started by now and it would be quite some time until it became habitable, even more so for it to be ready to receive the full team of new workers and support the three AIs that would take residence there; as for the techs and drivers things had gotten quite hectic when they received the news that Sarah was expecting a baby, of course the first ones to start worrying much more than needed be where Mike and KIFT, the later one taking into account the life of her driver as well as the new addition to their peculiar family; of course all the others had their worries, more on the three AI's side than anything and even though the lead tech managed to take it for a while it was only a matter of time until it reached a point where it became ridiculous…and as expected when the day finally came panic broke loose in the SSC all the way to the hospital, needless to say that the AIs decided to take turns with each other to keep watch over the couple while they stayed there for the few days that it was.

Two years later and the paperwork for the reinstitution FLAG as an official government organization was officially finished and the new location was already on its way to being built, after discussing possible locations and taking into consideration previous events as well as safety they ended up deciding to make the new base of operation hidden in a large spruce forest set in a mountain range further up north, the location alone would make them hard to find on any satellite, conventional or unconventional map as well as serve as a natural shield to conceal the AI's unique signature along with the actual complex's. was it going to be hard to make their original concept reality in the actual location? Very much so indeed, the three AIs had argued that the place would be hard to reach for the machines they would need to dig up in the mountain and the risk was too high in their eyes, the human's response? "have a little faith" of the three AIs KITT was the one to internally smile when the other two internally looked at each other and himself in confusion as he remembered the first time Sarah told him to have faith years ago in one of his first missions; of course one could imagine the human's satisfaction when not only did the complex was finally build, but it had been done a year earlier than they had predicted…

-One year later-

Somewhere in lost mountain roads two cars drove under the shade of the tall spruce trees at speeds way above what anyone would consider safe, despite that the two shapes waved through the bends effortlessly up until the road leveled out and changed into a single lane street that went through a dense part of the forest; the two slowed down as the trees and plants surrounding the road closed in even more until it left just enough space for the cars to drive through it. The road ended in a large metal door that seemed built into the rocky side of the large mountain, the two stopped for a few seconds until the doors opened and allowed them to drive through. On the inside there was a single dark hallway that started to get lit up until it reached a chamber with metal doors on both ends, through the glass walls on either side of the chamber it was easy to see a larger room that had people buzzing around with various assortments of papers and equipment, each focused on their own task, a green light turned on above the entrance to the room through the smaller glass chamber as its doors opened, letting a black and blue Mustang to drive through as the second car stopped inside it to go through the same decontamination process.

A young man came into the large main room through one of the multiple hallways that led in and out of the room, he walked straight to the front of the station that was designated for the black Mustang just as he came out of the decontamination chamber.

"So, found anything out there?"

"not really, the closest street with some real transit is some distance away and the road leading here is pretty well hidden from view and away from other side roads. I'd say you and Sarah picked a good place for the location of the new SSC"

"well we needed something to be well hidden and the dense forest and limited travel terrain really helped us conceal even the signatures given by the in and out of constant information and data to the base"

"it's a very good natural shield against outside signals. How is Sarah?"

"she's with Katie, finishing up a few things with the setup"

"I still do not understand why you and Sarah chose to stay away for such a long time after she was born"

"well since we were just finishing up the plans for this new base shortly before that we though that, considering the situation, it could be good to get some actual rest while taking care of her fully for the first few years; when we told Billy and Zoe about it they were happy to help set everything up here and until then we remained focusing completely on her. I mean it's cool, we still had you or KIFT around at all times just in case since you insisted so much with the whole protection thing"

"I was just being cautious, as they say: better be safe than sorry"

"guess you're right with that. So, what about you and KIRA? How's her training going?" the army ranger threw a glance at the black and blue Mustang that stood on the station next to him getting checked over by multiple techs.

"we've really been making some progress these past few days, the new installations really helped with some of the more specialized training and the change in location helped not only her but KIFT and myself as well to adapt to new terrain and conditions"

"have you three gotten used to the way up here already?"

"it wasn't that hard a task"

"well the roads are very different in every way to the ones you guys were used to traveling through constantly"

"they are, but it's nothing that we can't handle, really"

As the two kept talking Sarah entered the room through the same hallway Mike had come through, she was holding the small hand of her five-year-old kid, she had her long black hair hanging loose and her deep blue eyes sparkled at the sight of her father, letting go of Sarah's hand she started to trot towards Mike, tripping with the edge of the platform KITT was parked on but managing to catch herself in the black car's front bumper, with a soft smile Mike bent down and carried her up "watch out Katie, this is no place to be running around" he put her down standing on the ground and greeted Sarah as she walked around the two.

The two drivers' child stood next to them looking in awe at the large room she was in, the colorful lights that came from several of the monitors and screens around the room catching most of her attention; she loved seeing new places and exploring around but from everything she had seen since she arrived this was the one place that called to her the most. The moment the girl finally started to look at things more at her level she noticed the group of people going around the black and blue car next to her, as they started to leave she approached it in curiosity; the bright shine that the blue stripes had in contrast with the car's otherwise dark coloring appealed to her eyes, there was also this soft whooshing sound that she knew came from the car as well kept her interested enough to start looking more closely into it. Barely reaching the dark windows she cupped her hands around her eyes to try and see inside but at the time it looked like any other car's interior for her, determined to find the source of the sound she listened more closely and finally discovered that it came from a bright red light that was moving back and forth on top of the car, the movement it had was almost entrancing to her. Satisfied with her findings she sat down in front of the car, looking up to the bright red light with her head cocked to one side.

The unexpected interest that the small human had found in her took her by surprise, she gave a few rounds around her only occasionally tracing her taillights and the cobra emblem on her sides in honest curiosity, the AI herself had found curiosity in Mike and Sarah's daughter since this was the first time she actually interacted with someone as young as she was; peeking inside her interior once she turned to look at her scanner in one point, finding appeal in its motion, color or both. The young child sat down directly in front of her with her head leaning to one side as she followed the double red lights of the AI's scanner with bright blue eyes

"So, why don't you introduce yourself to her?" KITT's voice interrupted her musings as she too looked at the kid in curiosity

"I…I was thinking how she got such a sudden interest in me, it's not like she has never seen a car like us before"

"in a way she really hasn't, I must say that I am even slightly surprised that she took that much interest when she could've gone to KIFT or myself, even the times both KIFT and I saw her first at the other house she was never this interested in either of us other than staring for a few seconds before resuming whatever activity she would be doing" there was a small bit of silence as the young AI and kid looked at each other "so, are you not going to say hi?"

"How to even start? Wouldn't she get scared of a normally inanimate object to suddenly speak to her?"

"she's not like most other kids I've seen, but if you don't think speaking would be the best approach at the time you can try something else"

"like what?" this time there was silence from the other AI, KIRA could still feel that both older AIs were keeping an eye on her to see what her first interaction with her would be like.

Mike and Sarah watched as their daughter stared back at KIRA's scanner, this was the first time either of them had seen such interest in any of the AIs that they knew of, the second Mike headed to pick her up he immediately stopped when KITT told him what KIRA was doing though his earpiece, he communicated this to Sarah and the two stood now as expectant as the older AIs. After another minute another sound called Katie's attention behind her, she turned around while sitting down before turning to standing up rather quickly, this caused her to lose her balance enough to stumble back; at that point she was expecting to fall flat on her butt back down but to her surprise something had caught her mid-fall. She used her hands to grab onto whatever was behind her to straighten up and she was surprised to find that it had been the one car she had been staring at, the red lights were moving in the same calming manner as the car slowly retreated back to its place after moving forwards to catch her…taking another step towards it she stretched her hand out and placed it down on top of the car's front bumper, the surface was warm to the touch and she could feel the light vibrations caused by the now active engine "Try not to stand up as fast next time" a gentle voice said to her, being jus tall enough to see that there was no one inside the car her young mind immediately went to the next logical thing that a child's mind could come up with her next guess was that the voice had originated from the actual car and immediately she looked back down at the bright moving light

"Hello?"

"Hello Katherine, it is a pleasure to finally meet you"

Once again the child sat down in front of the car and asked with genuine interest now "Who are you?"

"My name is KIRA"

The first few days that followed were mostly used to get everyone fully used to working on their respective stations as well as to get the drivers and AIs set up properly, true the cars had no trouble navigating the route here after staying for less than a month but the actual setting of their new place was a whole other story; technology had advanced quite a bit now and the new stations they had working as their gimbals, even though they worked using the same electromagnetic principle to hold down the cars, had many more inner workings that needed to be tweaked to each AI's specifications. The new group of techs and other workers sent by the NSA had been relatively small per Sarah's petition, less people meant the risk of having a leak or infiltrated of some sort was reduced considerably, besides, the location they had limited their space so even though the main chamber was bigger than the one they had back in Nevada the overall size of the complex was actually smaller, but it still kept most if not all of the commodities they had back there as well so space was really not something that bothered them all that much. Katie had been finding her own way around the place with each passing day, since at least one of her parents was always in the main room she ended up spending most of her days there and eventually she properly met all three AIs rather well, this was mainly because all the time she spent doing nothing during the evenings she spent it talking to the Mustangs but even after she became basically friends with the three she would always turn to KIRA for the most part until it even got to the point that, when KIRA was allowed to, the two would go on short drives through the mountain roads around the complex. In a way the young AI enjoyed these roads more than the long stretches of road the nearby highway offered, true they gave her the perfect ground to practice controlling her speed and whatnot but the wavy ups and downs of the mountain paths had some charm to it that she loved…love…such an interesting concept that caused her so much trouble when she first crossed paths with it, so many different uses for different situations and the internal conflict brought on by her programing telling her that it was illogical for her to have feelings; the night she brought up that very topic with KIFT was still fresh in her processor even though it had taken place so long ago…

-Flashback, two years ago-

It was late at night at the SSC, not a sound could be heard and everyone had gone to have some rest…well, almost everyone...The young AI remained awake as a rather strange thought kept going through her processor, she started thinking about how she managed to fit in with all these people, being a complete outsider to them…then there was also these strange sensations she kept getting every now and then during the conversation the three of them had with the techs and drivers…she had a faint idea of what it could be but something in the back of her processor told her that it was an illogical thought to have…what was this?

"Still awake?"

the blue and black Mustang found herself slightly jumping at the unexpected voice coming from the white car besides her "KIFT, I'm sorry did I wake you up?"

"not at all. So, what's troubling you?"

"troubling me? Nothing, I was just…thinking about a few things"

"If anything is keeping you awake after coming back from a mission then I'd say it's pretty troubling"

the young AI remained quiet for a few seconds before speaking again "I've had this feeling for the past few days, I do not know what it is and it's starting to bother me quite a bit for…"

"feeling you say…as in what context?"

"my first idea was that this was something of an emotion, an internal sensation triggered by some sort of external situation; I left it at that for a while but something in the back of my processor keeps telling me that's not it, simply because as AIs we are not capable of feeling emotions"

"is that what you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"You say that you think it's some sort of feeling, but yet your own internal computer argues against it so, I want to know, what is it that you think it is?"

the very same question she had been asking herself for a bit now, could it be possible that as AIs they could have real emotions? How was that something that could be developed if most things learned by an AI are usually through experience or new programs and algorithms directly installed on the computer? "I don't know…I really can't find a way to express what this really is…and that is what has been bothering me…"

"it's easier than you think, KIRA, you will hear many things about us AIs, about what we can and can't do, but you have to always remember that we, you, are not just any regular computer or set of algorithms, your programs are constantly changing on a day to day basis based on your experiences, you have to stop questioning yourself and trust in what your programing is telling you. remember how it took you a while to trust your systems for driving at the beginning?"

"I do, but I don't see how the two topics are related"

"just as you had to learn to trust your systems in driving you have to learn to trust your instincts"

"instinct is a largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a complex and specific response without involving reason, in theory as AIs we do not have any 'instincts' simply because everything we do is calculated and thoroughly analyzed as well as supported by reasoning or hypothesis"

"right there, KIRA…somewhere in that sentence you answered you own question"

She stood silent for a few seconds "What?"

"you said that in theory AIs don't have any instincts"

"I did, why is that important?"

"In theory, according you, AI's do not have instincts…in theory you said, and a theory, in reality, is an abstract thought or speculation and therefor can be proven incorrect. My point here is that there are many things that because of your very own initial programing will be hard to understand and accept, but in time you will learn that as you grow and develop some new programing will start to get in conflict with the old one and cause this sort of trouble, what you need to do is go with the new one, since it has been developed after your own experiences and is adapting to your core's growth."

"so then…this feeling that I have is the development of a new core program?"

"Something like that, now that you have some more knowledge about this type of situations I'll leave it to you to find out whatever thou think might be happening. Good night KIRA"

"Good night KIFT…and thank you…for helping me"

-Present time-

The two black Mustangs remained on their stations at their base, Sarah had gone out to finish off the remaining paperwork to leave the property to FLAG's name and she would be getting back in a few hours, KITT was checking that all the backed up information from the SSC had been downloaded and stored properly in the new mainframe while KIRA was being checked over by the new techs under Billy's supervision so that in the future they would be able to perform the basic system diagnostics and other simple tasks, the two leading techs would still be in charge of the more serious repair and work for confidentiality purposes, only if they were under time constrains or there was a more complex and time consuming repair to be done they would be requiring of the others' help; the three AIs preferred it to be that way since they allowed only their closest friends to get access to their deeper and more complex programing and components simply because they trusted only their drivers in that regard for the most part with Billy and Zoe as a few exceptions. Since this was the first time KIRA had been around this many people going over her programing she couldn't help but feel the slightest hint of apprehension to the point that she even mentioned to KITT, he simply told her that she would eventually get used to it as well as to the people but that the more complicated and in depth repairs would still be done by Billy, Zoe or Sarah, this gave the young AI some peace of mind and in the span of a few months she had gotten used to the amount of people checking over her and monitoring her systems.

Five months after Sarah had finished arranging the papers that left the property to FLAG the group started to take missions on a regular basis in the way they used to back in the early days in the SSC, Mike and KITT were the ones to take them on for the most part, only occasionally taking KIRA with them in case they could need her as well as to help her grow and develop more as an AI with experience from data recollected after each of the missions she went to; only on few locations where their job implied a more challenging or dangerous mission did the two older AIs left together with their respective drivers, leaving KIRA as another help for Billy and Zoe when it came to research and problem solving when things got complicated.

At first the few times that KIRA was left behind while the older AIs left she always tried to convince either of them to let her go, of course the two always replied with a no due to the possible dangers that they could encounter in the mission; at first the black and blue Mustang didn't quite understand what more dangers one of these jobs could be…until during one of said missions Mike and Sarah got ambushed by the pseudo military group they were trying to take down, when that happened not only did they lost contact with both drivers and AIs for almost 24 hours, but by the time they got back in contact they were asking for assistance on fixing some of KIFT's systems after the two got chased out the camp and shot down with high powered missiles and explosively charged bullets, one of those missiles had hit KIFT on her side and even though the impact did not manage to fully break through her Nano skin the blow had been strong enough to send her off the road and damage some internal systems located in the general area where the missile had hit; right after the initial hit KITT had tried stopping the cars following them using an EMP, seeing this fail while KIFT was still trying to get out from the ditch she had fallen in both him and Mike turned to blowing the cars' tires, when the men inside them realized what had happened they all got down and instantly knocked out by either a well-placed hit from Mike or one of KITT's sleeping darts. The complications that particular mission caused for one or both AIs at times was enough to let KIRA see why they wouldn't let her go with them during cases of similar nature.

The times when both older Mustangs left with their drivers Katie ended up being taken care of by Billy and Zoe, or at least that was the general idea for it, in reality the child would rather stay around KIRA rather than sit on the large desk and watch whatever boring things the techs were doing. As time went on Katie and the young AI started to get along more with each other, the more the child grew and learned through the homeschooling program they were giving her at the base the more she was able to share and communicate with the AI; eventually most of her evenings when KIRA was at base consisted of them talking endlessly inside her cabin and watching movies on her HUD, on multiple occasions KIRA ended up being the one to teach Katie a thing or two based off of questions she would as her on a certain topic; it wasn't long until the AI realized that this kid had greater mental capabilities than most of her age, this thought only grew even further with the years as she ended up learning topics that most teens her age wouldn't even see until they reached university; alongside that Mike and Sarah had insisted on her taking the same military combat training that most of the field workers on the foundation had once she had reached an appropriate age, when she had asked them about it they only told her that it was for her own protection and In case any emergencies happened since by now she already knew everything about the foundation her parents worked on as well as what risks it could entitle for her being the daughter of not only both founders but also the drivers of the two older AIs.

Through the years Katie had formed a very strong bond with the black and blue Mustang that was not much unlike the one Mike and Sarah had with the older AIs, secretly she was half expecting that her parents would eventually tell her that she would start training with KIRA to eventually go out on missions on her own with her, you could imagine not only her but the AI's surprise when they told them that the NSA had told them to get a driver for the remaining AI so that they could use her more frequently and be more efficient in solving more than one case at a time; the thing behind said news was that on that very day a group of trained operatives had shown up precisely to try out for the position of the new driver, that day had been a nightmare for the two of them…

-Flashback, two months ago-

It was an early morning in the mountains, the fog was still way below the trees and the sky was just starting to change to lighter pinks and yellows, over on a small opening that overlooked a large valley remained the silhouette of a black car whose deep black surface was beginning to reflect the same colors as the sky; both front windows were rolled down and allowing the fresh smell of the forest to reach inside the cabin to its only passenger. Going out to see the first light of the day had become a routine for the daughter of Sarah and Michael Knight and the younger of the three AIs, every time after the black and blue Mustang returned from a mission the two made sure to be out in this very spot the following morning, this was the time when KIRA could unofficially tell Katie how the mission had gone in aspects she wouldn't normally know due to her low clearance, this of course troubled KIRA at first until she realized that this was one of the people she trusted most and it certainly wouldn't hurt to tell her about her missions.

"So, did you and KITT managed to get away from that?"

"It wasn't easy, especially with Mike infiltrated their group and we had to relay accurate information to avoid suspicion"

"Why did those guys wanted you two so badly though? You could've been any other Mustang for all they know"

"not exactly"

"what do you mean?"

"I mean that over the past few years as technology keeps advancing and we keep getting involved with larger terrorist groups the idea of a vehicle being controlled by an advanced artificial intelligence is no longer something people would only expect from a science fiction movie, but something slightly more believable"

"what does that have to do with anything?"

"look at it from this angle: of the amount of people that have heard of this organization and their special 'assets' a very small percentage would actually believe it to be true, with technology as it is today the percentage of people believing in our existence based off of rumors has increased"

"so then those guys knew about you and because of that they kept chasing and trying to stop you and KITT?"

"exactly"

"man is this getting rough, don't even want to see where we could end up in a few months with cases like this and the information spreading"

"that is why your parents decided on the tech rotation system they started eight years ago"

"I though they did that to get new and younger people with greater knowledge about modern technology"

"that too, although there is not much anyone can do to get over Billy and Zoe's levels"

"you're telling me. So when's the next rotation going to be? The guys we have in the main room have been there for quite a while now"

"if the previous pattern remains undisturbed then the next wave of techs should come in a few months' time"

"still quite a while eh"

"depends on your point of view"

"guess so" the young woman laid back in the car's seat with her hand resting on the window ledge as she looked over the valley to the far mountain range where the sun was just starting to peek from "When do you think it'll happen?"

"what will happen?"

"you know, the whole, mom and dad giving me a try to become your driver?"

"that's something I would like to know myself, I still remember way back when I was just getting settled in this new body thinking about finally getting a driver after I was finally able to witness what that bond could be like with KITT and your father, though I never really thought it could happen with both his and KIFT's driver's daughter"

"hey about that, you told me a while back that you were basically raised by KITT and KIFT right?"

"I don't think 'raised' is the appropriate word for that"

"oh come on the two of them took you in from that one place somewhere up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere and helped you settle in the SSC and in your new body, KITT personally trained you afterwards and up until this day so I'm pretty sure 'raised' as you put it, would be the appropriate word"

"…well if you say so"

"dude I'm serious, that wasn't even my point, what I wanted to get with that was that, if what I said before is true" she pointed a finger to the AI's voice modulator then "and it is, then wouldn't that make KITT and KIFT sort of your, like, parents?"

"no, in the strict sense of the word, it wouldn't"

"ok then don't take it literally, figuratively speaking"

"…in that case I suppose it would…I never really got around that though before, it never came to mind like that"

"and I can't believe I didn't either, after all these years since we really started talking…how long ago was that even? Wasn't I like five?"

"six, to be precise, we did meet when you were around five but it wasn't until months later that we really started talking for the first time"

"feels like if it had happened in the span of just a few years for me…"

"it has been twelve years since then"

"wow, don't make me feel old or anything…geez"

"Katie you are not 'old' by any definition of the term" after that there were a few minutes of silence as the two turned to continue looking at the rising sun until it became too bright to see, only then did the two turned around and decided to get back inside the base; only few people actually knew that despite being surrounded by three AIs Katie wasn't allowed to learn to drive with either of them, and up until that day she still hadn't driven any of the AIs simply because she wasn't allowed to, she wanted to, badly, but there was no way she would disobey orders, not after that one time…oh boy

the two arrived at the tunnel entrance and patiently waited a few seconds until it opened, driving through the dark corridor and stopping on the decontamination chamber KIRA went straight to her station. "KIRA?...does anything seem strange to you?"

"I don't know want you are referring to"

"look around, it's way too early for this many people to be up and working, are the other techs at mission-ready status?"

"no, KIFT would've told me if they were"

"maybe you're not going out today"

"even if that was the case she would've told me, she always does"

Katie was about to ask something else when both Mike and Sarah walked by in a slightly more formal attire than usual "Okay there is definitely something going on"

"why do you say so?"

"because my parents would never dress up like that for nothing"

"are you sure about that?"

"well even If that wasn't the case dad wouldn't wake up this early unless there was a mission of some sort, you already said that there is no current mission so, by process of elimination-"

"-our NSA representative is coming"

"what? Well I was going for something different but-"

"no Katie, he is coming, security cameras just detected a group of three cars, two of which are armored and one in between both"

"why would he come back? He never drives by, everything is usually done through private video chat with mom" she finished as she reached for her shoes across the seat

"where are you going?"

"to find out what's going on, keep an eye out and see what you can find, tell me if anything happens" Katie quickly climbed out of the Mustang and waving through people she stopped where her mother was talking to one of the guards "Mom, what's going on why is everyone up so early?"

"good morning Kate, glad you made it back, I was worried you and KIRA wouldn't return in time"

"in time for what?"

"go get changed before they get in and meet us back here"

"wait, you haven't even answered my first question, where's dad even?"

"He went out through the back exit to greet our NSA rep." she then turned to push Katie through one of the hallways leading to her room "Now go on, meet us back down here"

Before Katie could turn around to argue Sarah had already turned around and was quickly going towards the group of people she had been talking to before.

Katie ran back to her room and quickly started to look for something moderately presentable, just as she was trying to fix her hair KIFT appeared on the screen in her room "Katie, we have a problem"

"what is it?"

the AI then projected the live feed from one of the exterior cameras that showed her dad greeting the NSA representative:

"Michael Knight, pleasure to see you again"

"the feeling is mutual sir"

"I assume you already know why I am here"

"I believe so, the problem is that a task such as that one is not easy to achieve, there are many protocols and procedures to make it work as well as lots of time in between"

"I know that, but it has been two months since I first contacted Sarah about it and with no results the people back at HQ are breathing down my neck"

"we are doing all that we can to get this going, I can assure you that"

"well then your best isn't quite enough. We need a driver asap and since I haven't seen any more progress on this topic from your part I needed to take matters into my own hands"

"sir?"

"let's go in, I'd rather explain this only once when the rest of your team is present"

"shall we go in then?"

"lead the way"

the video was cut once the small group had left frame, Katie found herself frozen in her place for a few seconds before the reality of what she had heard finally sunk in "they are going to assign you a driver!?"

"it appears they are"

"but what, like when even is this happening? And why did my parents never told me about this if the NSA had told them that long ago?!"

"you know as much as I do, and I do have to remind you that you have approximately three minutes to meet your parents back at the main room"

"aw crap!" in between profanities and mid-falls Katie managed to run out of her room and into the main area where most of the higher class personal had been reunited; Knowing that it was best to keep quiet Katie ran up to be next to her parents. For meeting with high government operatives there was a protocol where the main tech and guard leaders had to stand in certain places where they could easily be identified by their position and job; Billy and Zoe had taken place on each side of the room in front of two of the larger computers with their tech team behind them, the guard commanding officer stood in front of the large entry door and Mike and Sarah stood next to their AIs respectively. With the conversation she had heard earlier Katie found it hard to stand with her mother and not next to KIRA where she should be, in all honesty it bothered her that their parent would even think of enlisting anyone but her as the AIs driver considering she had spent basically all her life this far with the AI…she knew her better than anyone and because of that she knew for a fact that having a driver just assigned to her like that would require quite some time for the computer to assimilate and trust as her driver.

The moment the NSA rep. stepped out of a hallway and into the room Katie shot a worried glance KIRA's way, one she AI mirrored with a barely visible split second increase od her scanner's intensity; it wasn't until a few seconds later that Katie noticed the subtle difference in the speed KIRA's scanner was moving in comparison to that of KITT and KIFT's, there was no doubt in her mind that the AI was worried about what would happen in the next few minutes, to be honest she couldn't blame her for it.

Surprise surprise, the NSA was going to send in a group of their specially trained operatives first hour tomorrow to start trying out for the driver's position; at the very least Sarah had argued against it for a while up until she realized that without the NSA's support they would return to work under the radar and without support, never before had Katie seen her mother so frustrated with any situation before this, the thing with her was that when anything involver either of the AIs' well-being she was the first one to jump up to defend them. About an hour after the NSA guys left and Katie had spoken to KIRA about what had happened they both agreed to try and talk to their respective parents to try and see if somehow they could convince them of letting Katie partner up with her…of course things had gone just as expected for Katherine.

"No"

"But mom you know that there's no other way if you don't want strange people with her"

"we'll just have to find another way, you are not becoming KIRA's driver, I've had enough experience with Michael and myself to know that I don't want you exposed to the same kind of risks"

"I've had the training you guys put me through for the past five years, I was even able to take down dad during a sparring match!"

"that doesn't mean anything, I said no, and that is my last word"

"would you rather let some strange guy who none of us know take control of her? For real? I am the best choice you could take to avoid any possible security breaches or similar issues and you know that"

"no security breach is big enough to put your life in danger, that is the las thing I am saying, Katherine Knight…go back with KIRA try and help her out for the rest of the day"

"how did you even know she was-"

"I've worked with KITT for years, the other two AIs are no different than him in the way the express themselves visually, I knew she wasn't comfortable with this whole situation since the moment they said they were sending a group of soldiers to try for the spot"

"Mom please, let me give it a try, it will be better for the three of us, KIRA won't have to worry about some random guy driving her and you won't have to worry about any security breaches"

"I said no, you'll stay here and work with Billy and Zoe on whatever needs to be done"

"I've already done that for the past missions, the two have agreed that I have more than enough skills in that field for anything that could possible happen out there"

"…not happening Kate, you are not going through what your father has gone through if I can stop it. If you really want to help that much go back to KIRA and talk to her, if anything good is going to come from tomorrow we need her to cooperate as well"

frustrated Kate walked out of the room and started to make her way over to the three AIs, hopefully KIRA had more luck then she did…

"You know very well that this is not how it works when it comes to getting a driver, you've told me countless times about the bond you shared with Mike, how it started and how it evolved into what is has become to this day"

"I know I have, but this is a different situation KIRA, I don't want you out there with someone we don't know anything about either but that is how thing will have to be"

"you can do a background check on him anyway, that wasn't my point"

"some things can remain hidden from files KIRA, we've seen it multiple times in the past"

"I know, and that is precisely why I am having this conversation with you. Look, maybe you didn't have much of a choice when it came to your driver since it was in your programing from the beginning but from what you've told me Michael was well known by Dr. Graiman and Sarah, KIFT accidentally bonded with Sarah to the point that the two became partners almost without speaking and yet I have to adjust my programing to someone that none of us know, maybe even by tomorrow night, don't you think that can get to be just slightly unfair?"

"KIRA, believe me when I tell you that if we had a say in the matter both KIFT and I would strongly object to it, but as the situation stands neither of us have a real say in what could happen tomorrow; the only thing you can do wait" KIRA was about to respond to this until the two AIs saw Kate enter the room and head straight for the black and blue Mustang "we'll continue this talk later tonight if you still want to. Talk with Katherine, see what the two of you can come up with"

after Katie climbed back inside KIRA the two spoke about the matter at hand as well as their positions and possible scenarios and ideas to make it work in their favor, but all to no avail, by nightfall the two were still back at where they had started their discussion and there was not much they could do but get some rest and be out there for each other the following morning during the tests.

To say that Katie had trouble falling asleep the previous night would've been a understatement, she literally tossed and turned for about two hours before she could manage to get the slightest hint of sleep and it still took another hour after that until she finally managed to properly fall asleep; when she finally opened her eyes the following morning she could see that the lights on the hallway were still slightly deemed down, meaning that it was still too early for anyone to be going around regularly, she remained staring at her roof for a while longer until she found the strength to sit up and take her phone from the nightstand next to her 'god why do I have to wake up so early…'

Wiping her eyes out of they sleep as she she waited for her phone to turn on she though once more about all that had happened yesterday, who would've thought that things could have such a drastic turn of events so fast…

After being blinded by the bright screen for a few seconds she started to scroll down through whatever notifications she got during the night up until the point where she reached the top ones, her heart skipped a beat when she saw three missed calls from KIRA as well as two messages she had sent ten minutes ago, the last one telling her that the NSA's military group had arrived, she glanced to the top of the screen and she nearly regretted getting up in the first place 'why would they come this early in the day!?' with one jump she climbed out of her bed and quickly headed to grab some sweatpants and a shirt to put on, running out of her room as she tied up her hair she got to the set of stairs that would take her to the underground training area for the AIs, this place consisted of a large open area under the main base that had the equipment to simulate different weather patterns for training purposes, at the time Katie was able to see that all the lights were on and the AI was on the opposite side of the room with Sarah by her side, she was explaining something to the group of eight military soldiers standing in front of her.

Sarah continued to explain what the trials would be about, it was very straight forward, go through a short obstacle course that had been marked in the room within a certain time limit, easy enough right? Just as Sarah had finished explaining Katie stopped next to her in time to see all but one of the soldiers step back, the one remaining stood next to the AI's driver's side door

Kate walked up next to Sarah and spoke in just whispers "Why didn't you tell me they had arrived?"

"Didn't want to wake you up"

"I told KIRA that I was going to be with her during the tests"

"well you're here now right?" looking to the soldier the tech nodded for him to climb inside the car, the door opened easily and closed back up with the characteristic pressurized hiss

"You can't do this"

"I can and I will, we have no choice Kate, now step back and help me out and start the time as soon as you're ready"

Reluctantly Kate took out her phone and brought up the stopwatch as the Mustang's engine came to life with a loud growl; KIRA knew she had orders not to interfere in the guy's driving, she had to leave it completely to him and only make observations that would help her and Sarah analyze who had the best driving patterns and ability, supposedly they all had a certain degree of skill in driving but the AI knew for a fact that it was way different to drive any other normal car than driving one specially designed like she was so there was no way that every single one of them wouldn't find at least some trouble when trying to go through the course with the fastest time.

Katie tried several times not to sigh in despair as she saw each of the first five guys that were trying out for the driver position fail miserably to control the car, all of them ended up drifting off to a side in the same bend and at least half of them had remained with the car's tires spinning in place at takeoff; even Sarah couldn't help but shake her head at some of the sights that were happening in front of her. Most of the soldiers slammed on the car's breaks right after crossing the line and more than once they almost ended hitting the wall right behind them, the following two went on slightly better with their way of driving and so far they had received the best look from Sarah and scored the fastest times, evidently they had some driving skills but it was still not enough on Katie's eyes, she knew that KIRA didn't approve of it either but just as her she didn't have a say in the matter.

The last guy to try out for the position called Katie's attention, he was tall and well-built with light brown hair and eyes, she didn't know what it was about him that didn't seem to fit but there was definitely something sketchy about him, she would make sure to see if KIRA felt it as well once this whole ordeal was over.

KIRA was really not liking this idea Sarah used for the soldiers to try out for drivers, most of them had failed miserably when meeting the standards for reaction time and precision and she had to apply her own force to slow down the car in the end for two of the drivers. With a low sigh that managed to escape through her vents she resigned herself to receive the last driver; the man opened her door and fell inside, settling in her seat and getting ready to start, KIRA found it interesting that while the other seven guys had looked around her interior and her HUD display this one didn't even take a glance at her voice modulator, he just took hold of the wheel and stared out the window, seconds after KIRA turned on her engine Sarah gave him the go and just like that he took off without the slightest hint of wheel spin, the first bent was performed with precision that surpassed the previous seven drivers, the zig zagging motion was just as precise and when the end of the track appeared he threw the AI into a sideways drift that stopped right past the finish line. Now it had been the AI's turn to be surprised, the other candidates, Sarah and Kate had the same expression on their faces after seeing how well this man had managed to control the AI with such skill; this was the first time that they knew of that he had been behind the wheel of such a car and seeing how well he kept his line Katie was sure that Sarah was going to choose him over the rest to be KIRA's driver, the only candidate that she had felt something weird about happened to be the same one that could control the AI with near perfect precision, coincidence? Not a chance in the world…

-End flashback-

ever since that day Katie's time with KIRA had been cut down by a considerable amount, she had to start training with the guy so that the AI could integrate the new driver into its core neural network and work their way up from there, this had started about two weeks ago and by now the guy had even set up his room; it wasn't until a few days after he settled in that Katie noticed that the three AIs had a feeling about him that was not right, KIFT herself had made sure to go over this man's files thoroughly and there was nothing she could find on him to make a proper argument against Sarah or the NSA, Kate found some peace knowing that she wasn't crazy, KIRA herself felt it too but of the four of them she was the one that couldn't say a word about it.

About a week later KIRA had her first alone mission scheduled, it was simple enough so that her and the new driver could get accustomed to each other, something the AI thought would take more than just a few missions, considering that the guy barely spoke to her unless it was absolutely needed and to give out commands and other orders; KIFT had spoken to KITT about that before and how she though it could've been a little unfair that both of them were able to 'choose' their drivers, in a way, while KIRA had been given a driver without her getting a choice in the matter. KITT brought this up to Mike in one of their routine rounds around the mountain and to his surprise Mike had agreed with him, he even told him that Sarah herself didn't want it to be done that way since it was basically forcing the AI's programming to mold to the driver subconsciously, something the tech hated to do but that in reality it was their only choice for the time constrains they had.

When the day finally came that KIRA was going to leave on her first mission even the two older AIs were a little worried about what could happen since it was a three-hour drive from the base to where they needed to go even with KIRA's speed so if anything did happen help would be quite a ways off. Sarah had started to notice that both KIRA and her daughter's demeanor had subtly changed over the past few weeks, she knew that Kate didn't approve of this and that KIRA was uncomfortable with the situation but there really was not much for her to do if the NSA wanted results in the short amount of time they had set for them…felling the slightest hint of regret when Katie didn't assist to the mission's launch sequence she uploaded the complete files into KIRA before letting them go, the loud sound from the engine echoing through the tunnel until the double doors closed behind them.

Unbeknown to the three AIs both Billy and Zoe had mixed feelings towards the new guy as well, he barely spoke to anyone around and kept to himself almost all the time, when Billy got word of how well he had done on the driving test with KIRA his suspicions only grew bigger and for once Zoe was actually agreeing with him.

The AI decided to take the wheel for the first half of the journey and since her new driver didn't object to it (or spoke to her at all) she continued to drive. Everything seemed relatively normal to her situations up until "KIRA shut down all connection to FLAG"

So he does talk…wait what? "May I ask why do you-"

"shut down all communication lines to base right now"

"I am sorry but I cannot do that, I have orders that-"

"I am your driver, because of that I can override all and any other commands from higher ranks so do as I say and shut down all communications"

reluctantly and feeling that something was definitely wrong the AI had no choice but to obey and cut off all contact, sending a direct message to Katherine as she did so, whoever this man was she was sure now that there was more to him than what was on the files…on the up side she could now go back to Sarah with solid evidence that he was not who they thought he was and hopefully they would remove him from his position. "what is the purpose of cutting our communication lines?"

"…"

Of course he's back to his silent self…

The two spent a few minutes like that as they kept driving up until the point when without any warning whatsoever the guy took a hold of the wheel as he took a small device from his pocket and pressed a large blue button on it that immediately sent the car in a sideways drift off into the dirt terrain on the side of the road when the systems shut down; the normally light blue globe on the dash had turned black and the HUD on the windshield flickered off.

The tall man climbed out of the car and brought up his phone as he walked a small distance away from it; as he did this the car's trunk slowly opened and without him knowing Katherine climbed out as carefully as possible, she closed the trunk without making any more noise and climbed back into the driver's seat, closing the door and locking herself in the car just as the man turned around to see her inside 'oh crap' as fast as she could she settled herself in her seat while mumbling to herself about not trusting the man before and how wrong had everyone else been, turning the key over and over as the car kept stalling "come on KIRA, don't go dying on me yet we knew something was going to go down so wake up!" as she screamed the last bit she placed her hand into the side window where a light blue touchpad appeared as the remote scanner registered her fingerprints and brought the car back online as the man brought out a gun from one of his pockets "Come on KIRA we don't have much time here!" she kept mumbling to herself while waiting for the system to boot back up, as soon as the man started shooting she ducked down and looked at the blue bar on the windshield that read that the reboot was just getting over 50% "okay screw this I'm getting us out of here no matter how bad a nagging I get from my parents when we're back " starting the engine herself and throwing the car In reverse she started to immediately accelerate back the way they had come from, shaking the back end of the car at the beginning due to the sudden burst of speed she managed to get it under control after a few more meters.

Relief washed over Katherine her as she saw out of the corner of her eye the blue light from the orb in the dashboard light up, bringing the HUD back online as well "KIRA please tell me you're okay?"

"I'm fine, and I must say that I am quite glad that I agreed to doing this"

"I told you something was off about the guy, now we can go back and report this to the base so that they can get a word from the NSA about all this crap"

"Once I am done rebooting my system fully I'll be able to contact FLAG, but you'll have to keep driving"

"and why is that?"

"I believe one of the circuit groups that allow me to take control of the car has been fried and needs to be replaced"

"are you serious? My parents are going to kill me if they see me driving you, hell, they'll kill me just because of the fact that I'm here with you! Do they even know about this fiasco that just happened?"

"I cannot be certain about it but taking into account the sudden communications silence as well as my disappearing signal they should already be working on something"

"can't they detect your signal now that you're back?"

"It'll take a few minutes until that Is reestablished, but my communications program is back"

"great…open a chat line with the base…and prepare for hell raining on us for this one"

As soon as the chat line opened on the screen Katie saw both Billy and Zoe's expressions immediately change when they saw her face "Kate?!"

"yeah, hi guys"

"what are you doing with KIRA?"

"I'll explain later Zoe I promise but for now I need to speak with my mom"

not even two seconds after she finished that sentence an angry Sarah popped into frame with a stare that could melt steel "Katherine?! What the hell are you doing with KIRA out there? And what just happened a minute ago when her signal disappeared?!...are you driving the car?!"

"yeah glad to see you too, look, first of all: I told you so and second: I'll tell you everything as soon as we get back

"where are you?"

"I'm sure KIRA's signal will be reestablished in a few seconds, that little blast was just bad news all around"

Sarah immediately looked back from the tablet she was holding "blast?!"

"Katie?" The AI interrupted just then

"Give me a second here KIRA"

"But Kate there-"

"Please KIRA just wait I need to-"

"Katherine we have two armored vehicles in pursuit, they will intercept with us in under a minute and I still can't access most of my defensive and offensive systems" Kate turned to look up from the dashboard to her mother's face on the screen as the reality of her situation sunk in

"Mom?..."

"Don't worry Katie, hang in there I'm sending Mike and KITT out for you two"

"But the base is still an hour away!"

"We can cut that time in half if you keep moving in our direction. KITT will contact you when he's close, please be careful, this is precisely the type of things I wanted to spare you from..."

"I'm sorry, but you left me no choice..."

Kathrine then cut the line and turned to look at the rearview mirror to the two red cars following her before tightening her grip on the wheel

"What are you planning on doing?"

"well…you know, just put my driving skills to the test and try and hang on until KITT arrives?"

"Katie you have never been behind my wheel actually driving before"

"I know…but how hard could it be?" famous last words

"harder than you'd expect, especially if you happen to only drive once every blue moon"

"oh come on now you're just exaggerating"

"I do not believe this is nor the appropriate place or time to be discussing this"

"well you're right about that…okay if this is going to work I'm going need you to trust me KIRA, I do kind of know some of your mechanical abilities and limitations so I'll try to stay in between those boundaries"

"Try?..."

As soon as the line was terminated Sarah spun around to face Mike as he entered the main chamber "You know what's going on don't you?"

"Yeah, and I don't like it one bit"

"Neither do I, go with KITT, he already had KIRA's coordinates and the sooner you get to them the less they'll have to deal with those two cars"

"Don't worry Sarah, I'll bring her back" he turned to look at the black Mustang besides him "we'll bring them back" as soon as Mike jumped in the car the loud sound of the AI's engine filled the room, the platform he was standing in turned around to face the exit and with one last growl the car vanished into the tunnel's darkness...


	2. 2 Revelations

**Chapter 2**

 **Revelations**

Katherine watched the two cars that were chasing them rapidly approach, she pushed on the accelerator to try and get some more distance between them but since she was in full control of the car for the first time she didn't want to risk going too fast; in a matter of seconds she had one car on each side of her, the windows were tinted black so the drivers remained completely hidden and KIRA detected some sort of jamming device that was protecting the two cars from being detected at a distance or tracked via satellite.

"What is your plan?"

"Not die for the most part, we need to try and loose these guys somehow"

"there are no available roads that divert from this main street for some time, I do not believe losing them is going to be a viable option"

"well what about turning around?"

"the amount of skill you'll require to maneuver to turn around and drive away in the opposite direction without endangering our lives or those of the people in the other cars without drifting off the road is way beyond your current expertise and practice when driving me, besides, if you did manage to do it safely it would take longer for KITT and your father to reach us"

"right…so what do you suggest then?"

"our best course of action would be to try ad outrun them in order to avoid any physical contact that could push us off the road"

"dude I'm not driving any faster right now; I'm scared enough to have to hold the wheel straight against all the road bumps in order to keep us from flying off into the trees"

"for this plan to work you will need to increase our speed, otherwise they will be within physical contact range in just a few seconds"

"I am not doing that we'll have to find something else, give me more options"

"we have no more options"

"there has to be something!"

"Katherine I have already ran through all the options and-"

"oh I hate this so much!" with that last protest she pressed down harder into the accelerator and watched as the digital speedometer on the windshield started to climb up considerably, the two red cars that were previously next to them were once again behind as the background blurred into a single sheet of greens and browns "There, you happy now?"

"we did manage to leave the other cars behind us"

"and you think that'll last much? They're already catching up on us again"

"they are, but at least we bought ourselves more time until KITT arrives"

Kate risked another glance at the speedometer, causing her stomach to sink considerably "I hope he gets here in time…"

a minute later and the two cars were once again besides them, KIRA had sent back to base the specifications of the jamming devices she detected in both cars so that they could work in breaking it down so by the time KITT arrived they would have more information about them and hopefully whoever was driving them. As soon as the two red cars paired up on each side of the AI the two shot some sort of round device that got stuck to the AI's sides with steel wires connecting them to the cars themselves.

"What the hell was that?"

"It appears that the two cars have shot some sort device into my sides and are attempting to slow us down"

"well then remove those things from yourself"

"I cannot, they seem to have some sort of magnetic field that is keeping them stuck to my sides"

"is there anything we can do to remove them?"

"we would need an big impact force that could cause the two cars to suddenly stop and either break the cables or surpass the magnetic force…alternatively I could try to find the correct frequency so that I can de-magnetize them"

"well do that then"

"it's not that simple, I will be some time until I find the correct one"

"well we won't lose anything if we try so go on ahead and start testing it out, see if you can manage to get free"

KIRA's processor was racing with possible solutions to her situation, the two cars had caught up to them again and it was too dangerous for Kate to increase her speed even more, she didn't know how far KITT was from their location but her increased speed should be enough to lower their interception point at least a few minutes; the moment when she felt the impact and magnetic force of the devices stuck to her side she immediately started to focus her attention on them, after a quick scan she sent her results back to base as well as a short explanation of their situation, Katie was starting to get nervous ever since she started to detect that it became harder each time to keep her current speed due to the two cars on her sided starting to slow down. The point when even she started to feel the pressure of her situation was when the two cars began hitting her sides in another attempt to slow her down, it worked to a certain point because Katherine had to slow down to be able to keep control of the car, each hit made the AI internally flinch at the harsh feeling that each impact had, subconsciously a diagram popped up on her HUD that pointed to the two areas on her sides that had received the impact with warning signs

"KIRA what's going on?"

"I do not believe these cars are regular vehicles"

"what do you mean by that?"

"I mean that the consistency and feel of their paint is not like any other I have ever seen"

"um, could you explain?"

"the cars' paint has been treated with a layer of some other type of metal flakes that gives them a very brittle and harsh finish causing damage on my surface upon contact with the-"

"in English KIRA"

"their outer cover has a texture not much unlike very rough sandpaper and each hit is leaving residue from said cover on my finish "

"great, anything else I need to know about all this?"

"each impact is doing some damage to my Nano-Skin"

"how is that even a thing?"

"the rough surface is treated with some sort of hyper conductive cover that is transmitting the cars' electrical signature onto me through the impact area, since its size is relatively small the high charge transmitted through the small surface on me is damaging the chips fused with my paint in that area" Katie was about to argue about something else of similar nature when KIRA managed to see the silhouette of a certain black car quickly driving towards them in the oncoming lane "Kate, I'm going to need you to hold on very tight and keep the wheel as straight as possible"

"what?...why?"

"KITT is approaching, I believe I know what he is planning to do and I am going to need you to keep the wheel straight on impact"

"impact?! What impact?!"

"I believe he has an idea to get rid of at least one of the cars attached to us"

"great, mind telling me about it?"

"eight seconds left, prepare for impact"

The moment the AI saw KITT in the distance a wave of relieve washed over her, that feeling changed into one of determination when he saw the older AI switching to his attack mode and aligning himself with the car on her left she knew that he was going to have a head on collision with it that would create enough force to separate the device attached to her on that side, the other one they would have to deal with after but with one out of the way for now would be enough, Kate's panic didn't help her own but she had to trust that she would be able to hold onto the wheel, unconsciously the AI slightly tightened her seatbelt around Katie in preparation for the blow.

Everything was in slow motion from the moment KITT had the head on collision with the red car, the Mustang's Nano skin shimmered and morphed on impact as it fixed itself with a blue glow that ran through the whole car due to the strength of the collision; the sudden switch in direction combined with the speed difference caused by the cable being pulled with the wrecked car on the blue and black AI was strong enough to cause her to slide to the opposite side of the road, when the impact's pull reached its peak the device was released and the Mustang slid further into the side until she drifter across the street and into a tree, the remaining red car was dragged by the same force until it got lodged in between two large pine trees, the cable still attached to the young AI.

"KITT what the hell?!"

"I'm sorry Michael but we needed a fast solution and this was the only option I could think of that would result in a safer intervention"

"Safer?! You just sent that car flying into the fourth dimension! What part of that is a 'safer intervention' In your mind?"

"Michael, the two cars are remote controlled, there were no human lives ever in danger"

"what?"

"the only reason I rammed head on against the car was because there was no one inside it, besides, it was the only way to remove on of the devices from KIRA"

Mike then opened the door and climbed out of the Mustang "KITT go check on KIRA, tell Katie to come back here, I'm checking on that car you wrecked"

Mike climbed down from the modified Mustang and walked over to the wreck, KITT drove over to KIRA where Katherine was just climbing out.

"Are you okay Katherine?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You know that was crazy right? Barreling into that other car like that"

"that was the best solution I could come up with considering the circumstances. You're father is back at the other car, he wants to talk to you"

she sighed and looked down "of course he does, thanks KITT"

"you're welcome"

As Kate walked off KITT turned to look at the younger AI "Are you okay KIRA?"

"Besides the damaged done by the EMP that shut me down in the first place and the one done to my Nano skin with the impacts received by the cars, I'm fine"

"glad to hear that" the midnight black Mustang noticed as he approached KIRA how her weight was slightly being pulled from one side, when driving around he saw the steel cable that connected her to the other car was pulling at her side from where the second car had landed between two trees "Need any help with that?"

"I would appreciate it"

with a well-placed impact from his laser KITT snapped the cable, the full weight on the car's left side being restored with the sound of crunching leaves and sticks from the side of the road "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I have been better, why did the EMP used on me back then fried these specific circuits that allow me to drive on my own?"

"it could've been something to do with the fact that it was released from inside your cabin and there were less barriers to protect said systems" there was a pause then…

"but you have another theory?"

"…there is a possibility that the EMP was designed specifically to target that system in particular, from what we saw today he knew much more than what we initially thought, if his plan was to take you then by disabling your ability to control the car he wouldn't have much trouble in doing so" KITT drove back to be in front of the blue striped Mustang, as he backed away he managed to get a glimpse of what looked like several red scratches on the side of the car "what is this?"

"it's part of the car's paint, it's design is like nothing I had ever seen and it appears to have a very brittle consistency that makes it easy to remove, it has also been treated with some sort of hyper conductive substance that in combination with the rough finish the paint had it managed to damage my Nano skin on impact"

The older AI set himself to analyze the residue that remained on the other Mustang to try and see what other things he could gather about it, from what he could detect the metal flakes the paint had been infused with were made out of tungsten, one of the strongest natural metals known to this date, since this metal was still for the most part in its natural state it was very brittle and shattered on impact but the small flakes themselves had a rough edge that caused the mixture to have that sandpaper feel to it which could cause some damage if the impact was strong enough "we need to get this back to base, Sarah has already sent a crew to clean up so I believe we should start moving back, the sooner we get there the faster the techs can start working on breaking down that mixture"

"Katherine what the hell were you thinking?! You could've been hurt, or killed!"

"Dad please, I'm fine, I had to do this because both KIRA and I felt that something was wrong with the guy and I couldn't risk putting her in danger"

"I understand your concerns, you two grew very close to each other and are basically like sisters in that regard, but worrying about her that much is not for you to do, that is the tech's and the driver's work"

"yeah because we all saw how well that played out today right?"

Mike shook his head in defeat with a smile on his face as he looked up to the sky "why do I even bother in arguing with you?"

"I ask myself that same question"

"do something useful and help me out with this would you?"

"sure"

Mike started to walk towards the one car that KITT had rammed head on a few meters from where they had been standing before, it's whole front was completely crumpled up into the cabin and the frame was completely shattered "Damn, you two really did a number on the thing"

"all KITT's fault"

"really? That looked like something you would pull off"

"since he figured out that the cars were being remote controlled he had no trouble in totaling the thing, despite everything he is still afraid that something might happen to KIRA when she's out without him, more so now that she went on her own"

"does he really?"

"yeah, I've told him many times that she already received all the training she could possibly need but he wouldn't listen"

"really? Well that doesn't sound familiar at all…"

Mike turned to look at Kate with an annoyed expression "Completely different case with you Kate" he kneeled down in front of the car and started to examine its surface

"oh come on you know that is not the case this is-"

"hey, come take a look at this"

"why does everyone keep interrupting me all the time?"

"Serious now, check out the car's paint" The whole surface was incredibly rough to the touch and it even attached itself to his hand, as Kate started to explain to him what KIRA had told her about it he kept looking over it and getting to feel it, if he applied enough pressure against the car it was easy for him to see how it could cause some serious damage; whoever had designed this specialized paint mixture had a very specific purpose in mind "come on, let's go back with the cars and leave this place to the clean-up crew that's coming in a bit. Go hop in KITT I'll drive KIRA back"

"No way, I'm taking KIRA back"

"I don't know if you remember properly but you are still not allowed to drive her"

"well then go on ahead and ask her about it, I was able to evade the two cars chasing us for a while even with traveling at very high speeds"

"you were in an emergency situation, there was no way around it there but now that I'm here and I actually have the clearance to do so you can just go have some rest on the way back in KITT. Be glad I'm standing up for you in this case so you don't have to face your mother's wrath full on plus the consequences of disobeying direct orders"

Standing defeated she crossed her arms as her father walked over towards KIRA, climbing inside as KITT drove over to her and opened his passenger's side door. Just a few minutes later they were back on the main highway back to base.

"I take it you're not happy about this"

"Gee you think?"

"Katie you have to understand your father's point of view on this"

"I thought you backed me up on this one, that way KIRA wouldn't need to have to go through adapting herself to some stranger...besides, by letting me be the driver not only am I already integrated into her neural network but you'll eliminate any chance of a security leak like what happened just now"

"I know I did, I know that, but putting your life at risk for the sake of my peace of mind is not something that is really worth it; plus you are only partially integrated into her systems"

"Oh come on you too? I have the training; I can defend myself"

"But you do lack training in driving"

"That can easily be acquired with some practice. Don't you think that after all this whole fiasco it would be better to appoint me to at least try for the position?"

The AI kept his silence for a few more minutes as he ran this through his processor, Katie was right in more ways than one when it came to her arguments but there still was that voice in the back of his processor telling him that he couldn't allow Katie's life to be in danger...the Mustang looked back to see KIRA as Mike drove behind them, he seemed to be having some sort of conversation with her, oh how he wished he could have a say in letting Katie appoint herself to apply as driver...at the time deep down he didn't even want KIRA roaming about, not after what they had seen today. He knew what all this was about, there was no other explanation and the more he ran it through his processor the more likely it seemed, this had to be KARR's doing in some way, shape or form, how else could the guy that was appointed driver have such skill to drive an AI like he did? KITT knew that Mike had his suspicions about all this as well and finding this specialized 'paint' on the cars only strengthened that suspicion, there was no other way anyone else could've designed such a specific mixture with purpose without some very hard to get information; unless of course you happen to have an AI with you that is.

The two Mustangs entered the main chamber where a group of techs were already waiting to get the samples of the paint mixture and scrape whatever residue had been left on the blue stripped Mustang, after a few minutes the techs noticed that there was some residual paint on the front of the black Mustang from when he had collided with one of the cars; it was relatively easy to scrape off but they did need to reapply a small layer of the specialized cover that protected the Nano skin.

Oh how Katie dreaded the moment KITT entered the main chamber and her mother was standing before his platform with her arms crossed, she was about to receive her mother's full fury and even though she was aware that her leaving with KIRA without anyone knowing was sure to get her in trouble she was willing to take whatever punishment Sarah could put her through as long as the AI was safe; at least she could tell everyone to their faces that she was right about the guy right?

The two stood silent in Sarah's office, she paced back and forth behind her desk for a minute before breaking out"Katherine what the hell were you thinking?! Hiding inside KIRA's trunk and basically infiltrating an official mission, are you serious right now?!"

"I was correct, you saw what happened, KIRA got ambushed back there and you don't even care"

"okay then think about this: what would've happened if that 'feeling' you had were to be wrong? What would've happened then? You would have to either stay in the car's trunk for an unknown amount of time or get out and interrupt an ongoing mission"

"but it WAS right, if I hadn't been there to stop it who knows what could've happened to KIRA. Go on now, tell me that I was wrong to prepare for something like this, if I had 'just left it there', as you told me to, KIRA would be in an unknown location for anyone to tamper with"

"Katherine this is not the time to-"

"You know that I am perfectly able to apply for the driver position, I have the training and with this you can see that I have the ability to act according to the situation not even to mention the fact that I even managed to control KIRA while being chased at high speed even as my first time behind her wheel"

"Katherine I swear that-"

"so tell me, what is it then? Why is it that you want me so badly to out of the way when it comes to being KIRA's driver when you and Dad have been KITT and KIFT's drivers for so long, doesn't it seem at least a bit logical that I was the one to take the job with KIRA? She has talked to me about how she imagined years back what it would be to have a bond with a driver like you and dad have with the other two, you think this was what she imagined tings would be like for her? …I'll ask once more, so tell me, why do you want me so badly to stay away?"

"…you want to know so bad? I'll tell you then" Sarah stood straight and walked behind her desk, plugging in a USB into one of the ports and saving some files in it, a minute later she unplugged it and threw it to Kate, she caught it and stared in confusion for a second "Go ahead, read those files if you're so desperate to know, maybe you'll understand then" Sarah turned to walk out of the room then, leaving a shocked and confused Katie in her place

A few minutes later Kate entered her room in a rush for her computer while dialing a number on her phone, it picked up on the third ring just as she closed the room to her door.

"KIRA?"

"Yes?"

"I talked to my mom a little bit ago about the whole driver thing, needless to say that she wasn't happy but when I started questioning her about why she wanted me to stay out of the way so badly she gave me a USB with some files in it, I'm going have a look"

"I'll be listening if you find anything important"

"sounds good, how are you doing?"

"better, they are almost done reapplying the layer of my Nano skin that got damaged and the chip that malfunctioned after the EMP is being replaced, they should be done in under an hour"

"good, I'm about to open the files"

as the USB was detected it automatically opened to show a single file with the codename 'Knight to King's Pawn' inside it remained three more files with a date alongside other codes and keys that Katie couldn't understand but she was able to make out the order in which they occurred, the first on she clicked on had the name "04/12/08_CaseFile001_FirstEncounter" the file took about a minute to load but once it did Katie was able to see that it contained an extensive report on some sort of attack. It wasn't until now that she not only understood her parents' apprehension for letting her out in the field, but the reason behind why KITT had been so persistent in his combat training; this other AI, KARR, was completely different from anything she had seen before, let alone that, the date on this and the other files matched perfectly with those in the gaps that she didn't have access to.

"KIRA, this other AI, he was created before KITT but something went wrong in his programing and apparently they deactivated him for quite a while before this Torres guy brought him back by…" she paused re-reading the same sentence a few times "by taking out KITT's original AI chip and placing it in him…"

there was some silence from the AI's side

"it says that they thought that by replacing his programing with KITT's more compliant one they would gain control over him but they were wrong. Billy, Zoe and my parents had to infiltrate area 51 to try and take him back with a new AI chip made with radio shack leftovers" she stopped again 'did they really do that? It sounds like something straight out of an action or science fiction movie' she shook her head then and focused on her reading "it also says that when KITT and my father were attempting to go back to the old base they intercepted KARR and there was no other choice for them other than fight him even though most of KITT's systems were not yet online because of the reboot" she scrolled to the bottom of the file there were some more reports on the attack including diagnostics done to KITT to get a full scale of the damage as well as a few images of what the result of the fight had been; the desert field littered with unrecognizable parts and fire spread across a large are, KITT in a condition neither of the two had seen before "KIRA if this thing was able to do this to KITT…"

after keeping her silence to take in all the information KIRA finally spoke again "you have to remember that he was still retrieving all his files after being deactivated, his Nano skin and most weapons were most likely inoperative"

"well at least they got rid of him then"

a good hour went by until Katie had thoroughly read over the three files and discussed the whole thing with KIRA, they were still trying to get around the fact that after three fights that thing was still around and when they considered that day's events the probability of that very AI being behind, or at least involved, in it was quickly becoming a reality. There was one downside to all this in Katie's eyes; if her mother though that this was going to keep her from asking to become the AIs driver again then she had no idea just how wrong she was, if anything she would try even harder to get to that position so that her and KIRA could defeat the guy and make him pay for all that he had made her parents and the other two AIs go through. She was sure about it now and there was no turning it around, if there was one thing Sarah had was persistence, but Katie knew that she had inherited that same trait from her that in combination with her father's determination there was no way she would lose this fight, not now, not ever…

By the time Katie walked back into the main chamber where everyone was still going about the events from earlier her parents were standing by one of the larger desks, it seemed that they were in the middle of a discussion but at the time she couldn't care any less about it; with determination written all over her she dropped the USB over the desk loud enough to call the two's attention "Why didn't you tell me about this up until now?"

"because you weren't ready for it, I still didn't think you were ready to get this information even now but you left me with no other choice"

confused, Mike glanced between the two and the USB on the desk "ok what the hell is going on here?"

"I had the same argument I was having with you a minute ago with her so I gave her the files involving KARR

"you what?!"

after a few seconds that followed that statement Kate's mind froze, Sarah had said that her and Mike were discussing the same subject that the two of them had a while ago back at her office…so…did that mean what she thought it meant? "What did you just say?"

"what?"

"you just said that you and dad were discussing this very subject, what does that mean?"

before Sarah had a chance to answer Mike began talking "It means, Katie, that I was trying to talk your mother into letting you try out for the driver position"

"what?...why? you told me earlier that you were against that"

"I was, up until KIRA showed me what you did back there against the other two cars" he turned back to look at Sarah "I still disagree that you gave her the KARR files, we could've figured another way of telling her about him without giving out the detailed events"

"it doesn't matter now…KIRA and I read through them" at the mention of KIRA Katherine was able to spot out of the corner of her eye the slight difference in the two older AI's scanners, it seemed that they, too, were trying to keep this from the younger AI "mom if you thought that giving me these files would make me give up the position or the argument then I'm sorry to tell you that the results were the complete opposite"

Sarah gave out a long sigh as she realized that her plan had failed and that Mike was arguing against her as well…fine, if Kate wanted to apply for the driver position then she would make sure to let her know just how much more training she needed to have "you still want to apply for the position then? Well, in that case I want you down by the training grounds first thing tomorrow morning; don't be late." Sarah turned around to walk out of the room, only stopping by KIFT for a second "Send KIRA the full specs to begin the integration into her core neural network. Do you think you can explain to her what all this really entitles?"

"Of course Sarah"

"thanks KIFT, I'm going to be needing your help in guiding her through this process"

"I though KITT was the one in charge of that"

"he only does all the practical training and combat, I need you to help me with helping her adapt to the changes that the full integration takes, I'll be giving Kate some inside on it but I believe you still can explain it better to her based on your own experience"

"don't worry Sarah, I'll take care of it"

"thanks" the tech gave the white and blue Mustang a light pat on her hood right above the scanner before walking out of the room, leaving an slightly shocked and excited Katherine still standing at the desk.

"Katie?...Katherine wake up"

There were a few seconds of silence "…KIRA?"

"I'm sorry to bother you but I felt obliged to remind you that you have to be down at the training grounds early"

"give me a few more minutes, I'll be up in like…five or…twenty five more minutes"

"Katie"

"what?"

"It's five more minutes until six"

the room remained the same for the following few seconds up until the point Katie threw everything on her across the room as she jumped out of her bed and headed to get whatever clothes she could use; a few minutes later and she was finishing putting on her shoes and getting ready to leave "KIRA where the hell is my phone?"

"you threw it across the room a few minutes ago, it is located under some pillows in the corner"

the woman dug through the pillows until she found her phone, just a minute until the clock striked six "KIRA tell mom that I'm on my way"

"I already have, she's been waiting for the past ten minutes"

"I though you said I still had a minute until six"

"thirty seconds, and yes, you do need to know that when someone says 'first thing tomorrow morning' they do not mean for you to arrive at said hour, but at the very least with five minutes of anticipation"

"great, late to my first day of training, what else could possibly go wrong?"

Sarah stood in the training area by one of the doors while looking at a clock on the wall that read 6:01 the room was still empty and KIRA had said that Kate was already on her way so she shouldn't be-

"I'm here!" Kate busted through one of the doors on the side of the room with a small bag over her shoulders

"you're late"

"I know, sorry I had some trouble with some things"

"really? Because KIRA told me that you woke up late"

"well…yeah but I had some issues"

"I expect you here earlier tomorrow, now come, the sooner we start the sooner I'll be able to go finish off some paperwork needed for you to officially take the spot. The program I am giving you today will remain the same for the first month or until you manage to master it"

"Master it?"

"this is not just your simple course at the gym, you have that and the hand to hand combat training on already but you are missing the more advanced techniques with certain…tools, so to speak"

"when do I start training with KIRA?"

"two weeks from now, if you show good improvements in here, fail at that and or take too long to do so and I'll have no choice but to cancel your training and look for another driver. The course is easy enough to remember but hard to master, you'll have to work your way up the hard section of the rock wall and drop down with a rope on the other side, then you'll proceed to the room on the left of it with the red door and from then you'll go to the simulator on the blue room" Sarah took a key out of her pocket and gave it to her with the papers that had the instructions she needed to follow in the room with the red door "Key's for the blue door"

"it's locked?"

"since the equipment there is reserved only for the purpose of training the AIs driver it is kept locked to keep anyone else from poking around with the systems and getting insight on the AI's workings so do not lose that key and lock when you're done"

"you're leaving?"

"I have work to do, I'll leave it to you to follow the instructions and do well, because if you don't then you know what'll happen. First test to evaluate your progress is in a week so if I were you I'll start working"

"why can't KIRA just keep watch?"

"because while you are working down here KIFT Is teaching her about the integration of neural network"

"integration?"

"since you are going to be her first real driver the integration neural networks needs to mold to you and, in turn, make readjustments to the AI's core so that the two of you are able to work in sync"

"and how long does that integration take?"

"depends on the AI and the driver, with KITT and Mike it took about a month of working together but for KIFT and I it was close to three months since her entire core network and original codes and programing were not created by us, those codes needed to get rearranged and organized so that's why it took so long; you and KIRA have better chances simply because the two of you have been together for years and you were practically raised with her as one of your closest friends, her programs shouldn't take long to jus mold to you"

Two floors above them KIFT was starting to explain to KIRA what the integration program was about and the changes it would create in her core neural network so that she didn't just suddenly find things out of place and modified files, the young AI was excited to know that they had finally agreed to Katie becoming her driver and and she was being prepared to fully integrate her into her network as her official driver.

"any more questions?"

"how long is this process going to take?"

"taking into consideration that you and Kate have interacted with each other as much as you two have it really shouldn't be that long"

"and when will I know when the process is finished"

"you'll know, you'll be able to do certain things without Kate necessarily telling you to and your internal systems will respond to certain stimuli automatically; in essence your systems will mold around your driver's personality and actions strongly in this period of time and will continue to change lightly over time. The time it takes for this first full integration to be finished you'll also develop a stronger bond with her, this will also grow even stronger with time"

"but even after sharing so much with one another throughout the years this integration and the bond that comes out of it is it possible that the integration has a large impact?"

"you'll be surprised how much the true bond between car and driver can affect your inner systems and your perspective of a person, true the two of you are very good friends and even family but even that cannot come close to how you see your driver; you'll be able to see this for yourself at least in a few weeks' time"

"and when am I starting to train with her?"

"Two weeks from now, the basic integration should be done and ready for user interaction, she'll be working on the simulator for the time being and you can link into it without her knowledge so that you can see her driving and action patterns, you'll subconsciously remember them and they will be useful for future references once you two are out in the field"

during the first few days both AI and driver went over the basic training they needed before actually working with each other, Katie had discovered that after actually driving KIRA once that time when they were being chased the simulator seemed easy enough to take on, the room with the red door happened to be a closed off shooting ground with a large assortment of weapons that once she had improved with the basic four her mother had suggested she started to try and get a feel for the rest, in the end she discovered that the one gun she liked the most was a simple SP2022 semi-automatic pistol that had some electric blue accents on the sides of the silver colored slide that contrasted with the matte black finish of the rest of the gun; on KIRA's side it was easy to see how watching Katie over at the simulator she had picked a thing or two about her driving style and response to certain scenarios, just with this alone she could feel that the integration program had done a few slight changed to her system, it was at that point that the young AI finally realized that the two of them were closer than ever to really working as a team out in the field, closer to working as one.


	3. 3 Changes

**Chapter 3**

 **Changes**

After Katie had completed her solo training successfully in less time than expected she started to train with the AI down in the grounds that were used than time the NSA agents came to try for the driver's position, Katie had to go through the same course they had to go through and with what little experience she had driving the AI she was able to go through it with close to no trouble, it would look like the simulator did have its advantages then eh? Mike stood waiting at the end of the course, he took a step back as the car skidded to a stop right next to him "Nice job KIRA"

"I appreciate the compliment but it wasn't me, Katie did all of the work this run, I just kept watch over the analytics"

"find anything different?"

"besides the improved time since her last run yesterday she was more conservative on her braking and took advantage of the carried momentum in the bends to slide through them and into the next part of the course"

"You two know I can hear you right?" Mike looked up from the car's scanner to see Katie poking her head out the window "hi dad"

"well hello there, I see you are making big improvements with each run, quite surprising for your age"

"just because you started to officially work for the foundation on your mid-twenties doesn't mean that because I am younger I have less skill"

"not at all, actually the new tech group is coming In tomorrow and a large part of them are around your age, fresh and new ideas that come in with younger yet more developed minds, I've seen this happening more and more often lately and honestly I believe is a change for the better"

"cool, so did mom plan another of her speeches for them or?"

"she won't be here to receive them since she's going out to DC to talk about a certain candidate the NSA sent to us a few months back"

"you are going to do it then?"

"nope, heading out for a routine check of the perimeter with KITT at that time"

"Zoe?"

"prepping the tech labs for them, doubt she'll be done by then"

"…is Billy going to do it?"

"come on you know that as good a tech and smart as he is he can't talk to any moderately big group of people"

"okay then who's doing it?"

"you are"

"umm…excuse me? You want me to do it?"

"well there are more newbies coming in that are about your age so it shouldn't be as hard for you right?"

"I mean yeah but I don't think I can do it"

"they'll love it, they are all tech geeks just like you and getting welcomed by not only the AI's driver but one of the higher ranking workers here, not mentioning someone their age, could give them a good first impression of the place"

"you know perfectly well that I can't speak in public even if my life depended on it dad"

"oh come on it's just like two or three…dozen people coming in, not too bad right?"

"are you sure there is no one else that can do this?"

"well if you don't I'll have to tell Billy to do it and you know how bad that can turn out for everyone involved"

"fine, I'll do it, what time tomorrow?"

"right after your training, they'll arrive approximately at ten in the morning so you have a good hour to get presentable"

"aren't I always?"

"just try to wear something that's not your everyday blue hoodie and black leggings"

"can I keep the boots though?"

"which ones? the yellow leather combat boots?"

"the one and only"

"sure, just be ready on time, I'll meet you back here and take you out to meet them before the tour"

"oh so I do have to give them a tour around the place now huh"

"well if you're going do the job better do it properly right?"

"ok fine, I'll do it"

"great, I'll tell Billy that you're taking over that"

"yeah tell him he owes me one as well"

"I will" with that Mike turned around and started to walk away while Kate rolled the window back up

"mind going out for a drive KIRA?"

"not at all, a drive around the mountain would actually be a good change after being locked up inside the base for the past three days"

"yeah, same, we need to go out more often, at least to have out regular sunrise outings every once in a while" the young driver turned on the car's engine and headed for the tunnel that would take them outside; car and driver took off into the darkness and out to the bright light of the late morning sun

"it has been some time since the last time we did that. How are you planning on doing the new techs' introduction tomorrow"

"by just…doing it?"

"do you not remember that tomorrow morning we have our training session on an airfield forty minutes from here?"

"uhh…yeah I might have forgotten about that. But look if we get there early we can start and in about an hour we'll be done, drive back and I'll still have a few minutes to see how I'm doing the whole introduction thing"

"in that case we'll need to leave at the very least half an hour earlier than our usual schedule"

"then we'll do it, I don't think it'll be too much of an issue right?"

"it shouldn't be, with my skill and your speed we shouldn't have much trouble getting there on time"

"and do you plan on doing the trial with the same clothes you are taking to the introduction?"

"well…no, I should have enough time to get changed when we arrive right?"

"If we don't come across with any unforeseen circumstances then you should"

"and if we do?"

"then depending on how much it affects our estimated arrival time back at base you could have anything form twenty spare minutes to getting right on time"

"okay so what do you suggest we do?"

"I believe it would be better if you bring a bag with the clothes you are going to wear to the introduction, that way if we see that the time is short you can change in here while I continue driving"

"sounds like a good idea, I'll give you that, but how about we stop worrying about that for the time being and we just enjoy the ride, it had been some time since we managed to go out just on a joyride"

for the rest of the ride KIRA allowed Katie to drive, to an extent it was useful for her integration program but she also enjoyed letting her drive simply because when she did the AI was able to just focus on the place around them, the feeling of the fresh autumn air on her surface, every bump and irregularity on the smooth road and the trees all around them in varying shades of oranges, yellows and reds; there were still a few weeks until the leaves started to actually fall from the trees and the road was completely covered by them so that was why this had been one of the few rides they would take before they had to wait for the leaves to naturally clear and leave the road exposed once more, that was the only disadvantage they could find on their new location but for the two of them it was nothing compared to the rest of the benefits provided alongside the beautiful sights it created with the passing of every season.

It wasn't until about an hour later that the blue and black Mustang arrived back at the base, KIFT was already gone with Sarah on their way to DC and because neither Mike or Billy were on sight Katie guessed that the two probably had another argument about whatever game and decided to settle it by actually playing; with a shake of her head Katie climbed out of the car and headed to her room, there was nothing for her to do for the rest of the day so she happily settled for browsing the internet and playing a few games she had just bought on her PC which, thanks to Billy and Zoe no less, was equipped to handle just about anything you could throw at her. Hours went by and Katie found herself begging KIRA to have a try at one of the games she had just bought with her, the AI was reluctant but eventually she agreed.

Even if videogames were never a thing she found interest in the AI though that it would be good to give it a try…that and the fact that Katherine would probably never stop trying to get her to play so in reality she had no real choice in the matter. An hour in and KIRA was starting to understand how her driver was able to spend hours on end just sitting down on the computer, these games did have some charm to them and more often than not the Mustang thought about agreeing to these occasional occurrences more often; the two kept going until dark when Katie finally gave up and decided to call it a night, changing into her nightwear the young driver threw herself into bed and quickly fell asleep.

Just like they had agreed on the previous night KIRA woke up Katie earlier than usual so that the two could be out and on their way to their training at least half an hour earlier; it was a rare occurrence when Katie was able to go out with the AI during the night so that morning she took the darkness of the early morning as if it were just another night. For the longest time the only visible light that the two had for guide were the Mustang's headlights that easily cut through the morning fog and the bright full moon still somewhat visible over the horizon

"I have to say that I am quite surprised that you managed to get up this early with such ease considering how late you went to sleep last night Kate"

"well I should say the same thing about you, don't even think that I didn't notice you kept on playing for a while after I left Ms. Videogames are a waste of time"

"we both know that it's an entirely different situation; regarding the videogame …well I guess that I stand corrected and that I have only one more thing to say…"

"oh come on, say it, I've been wanting to hear it for ages now"

"better get a camera…"

Kate rolled her eyes at the AIs sarcastic comment "just say it already, I just want to hear those beautiful three words"

"you were right, about games like those being a good source of entertainment"

"oh the sweet sweet sound of victory "

"don't get used to it…"

"so, how far until we reach the airfield?"

"at our current speed it will take us another thirty minutes"

"and how long until we reach a more well-lit, transited road?"

"another ten minutes"

"okay, beautiful. So KIRA, did you tell KITT and KIFT about our plan today?"

"I did, they agreed that it was a good idea to leave early and take spare clothes in case we don't make it back with enough time to spare"

"I told you we make a good team"

"I fail to see how both situations are related to one another"

"well leaving early was my ideas, bringing spare clothes was yours, this little plan had a better chance of working thanks to both out ideas so in a sense we do kind of complement each other"

"well if you put it like that it does make some sense. Katie I just noticed that there is a slight chance of rain in the next few hours, if this does happen we will be slowed down considerable both in training and out way back, not mentioning the fact that I just got washed two days ago"

"wait a sec…did I just hear that right? Did you just complain about possibly getting dirty because of the rain?"

"Kathrine I take great pride in my appearance and since today we are also meeting the new workers I plan on looking my best"

"KIRA you could be covered in dirt and still look your best, you're a Mustang controlled by one of the world's most advanced AI for god's sake you don't need to be completely clean to impress people, especially tech geeks"

"that still doesn't change my ideals, I plan on trying to stay in my best appearance possible for the day"

"well you do you then, besides you just said 'slight chance of rain' so we could just stay dry up here or at most get a drizzle here and there so no need to worry about that; I'll be careful during the course to keep you squeaky clean okay?"

"okay, and thanks Katie"

"no problem. Now let's get going and see if we can reach that old airfield in record time shall we?"

AI and driver arrived at their destination just as the sky started to get the lighter shades of blue and purple that were characteristic of the approaching sunrise, sadly for them the tech that was supposed to get there to instruct them what the training session was going to be about arrived later than expected…almost a full hour later…

In a more rushed fashion the two began with the course, everything was going well and they were doing each of the trials with near perfect scores that got close to those of the midnight black Mustang and his driver, that was up until the previously light gray colored clouds that remained on the morning sky started to turn a more menacing dark gray, KIRA was the first to notice and without a doubt she brought up her concerns with her driver but she simply said that they were already well prepared to handle the training course with rain before reassuring the AI that she would personally give her another bath if needed…and of course not even ten minutes after she said that rain started to pour down from the sky in waves of strong winds, apparently this 'light rain' had evolved into something far bigger than the two had seen on the weather forecast a few hours back. In the the end the two were done with their training just slightly above schedule and Katie had still about an hour until the new group of techs arrived, by the time they got back she would have at least ten minutes to get ready and she was sure that was all she really needed; so since they had such good luck this far throughout the day a roadblock caused by a fallen tree was just something else they needed to hinder their progress right?

"ok, we have forty minutes to get back to base, the road is closed and we are completely surrounded by other cars…KIRA please tell me you have some plan to get us out of here"

"the only thing we can do is wait for the cars in front of us to move and clear a path before we head to a backroad that will lead directly to the same area where the new tech group is going to be dropped off"

"okay, how long until we get unstuck from this situation?"

"approximately ten more minutes, if the cars continue to move at their current pace"

"that'll leave us with half an hour to get back to base…how much of a detour does this backroad create for us?"

"the road that will lead us to where we need to go is another ten minutes from our location and it will take us just over fifteen minutes to get to the base"

"that would leave us with five minutes to spare, maybe even less depending on how bad this rain gets and we have to slow down"

"if the weather worsens even more then I calculate that it will take us forty-five minutes to reach the base"

"but that's five minutes over the schedule"

"yes I know"

"well if that's the case then we have to hurry and start climbing that road as soon as possible, I really don't want to be late for this one"

"and I will still need at least a once over with clean water when we get there"

"look I'll make a deal with you, take us back within the forty-minute limit that we have and I'll give you another full bath with wax, interior, anything you want, I'll do it myself as long as we get there on time. How's that for motivation?"

"…I'll see what I can do"

waving between cars they were stuck amongst KIRA managed to get out into open roads with a minute to spare and up into the road that would take them around the mountain with a three-minute advantage, everything was going well until the rain did actually start pouring down and shaking the tall trees around them, forcing the AI to slow down as the time gap they had built started to break down until it had disappeared completely.

Billy was waiting outside on the large garage-like area where the new techs would be arriving, Mike had told him that Katie was going to be taking care of it but he knew that her and KIRA had to go train at the abandoned airbase and with this weather it would be difficult for her to actually get back in time, if that happened then he would have to be in charge of the introduction and oh boy did he wish he had brought some way of calling Katie when he saw the bus arrive; KIRA was still not back down or he would've known and there was no way for him to know how close or far the two were so the only thing he could hope for was that by the time the new techs got their personal belongings she would be back and he wouldn't need to take care of the introduction but as things stood it would look like he would have to end up doing it himself. Just as the garage doors were closing to keep the storm out he hears the far honking of a car, the tech shouted to the guards to keep the door open right as the black and blue Mustang drove in and skidded to a halt around the front of the group of new techs.

Katie had just barely finished changing her shirt by the time KIRA entered the garage, through the window she saw the new group of techs carrying their bags standing a few meters away from them so still in a rush she thanked KIRA before climbing out and running towards the front of the group, Billy meeting her half-way

"How did you even manage to get here so fast In this storm?"

"we left earlier, we would've been back sooner if the main road hadn't been blocked by a fallen tree but we took a little detour that led us back here"

"right on time as well, I thought I would have to do the introduction again"

"don't worry, I know this is not really your field and I'm here so I'll take care of it"

"thanks Katie"

"anytime"

As Billy left the area the young driver turned around to face the group of surprised techs at the sight of the AI that was now driving back out to be able to get to the main entrance that led to the main chamber; Katherine called their attention before apologizing for arriving in a hurried fashion as she introduced herself while instructing the group to follow her down to the living quarters where they would drop their things on their respective place.

Katie took the group around the base to show them the main places where they would be working around as well as the general social areas; the complete tour took her about an hour to do and it finished back at the main chamber where the three empty spaces for the AIs remained, she wished everyone luck before dismissing them back to their quarters to get settled in for the day, as soon as they were all gone Katie turned to the two techs behind her with a sigh.

Zoe spun on her chair to look at her "So how was the tour?"

"went better than expected, I'm actually surprised to see that many people around my age, how is that even a thing?"

"little geniuses, jumped grades and took advanced courses I guess"

"wow, so, have you seen KIRA? Saw her leaving the hangar upstairs about an hour ago"

"she went down to the cleaning station a few minutes ago"

Katie looked up with a smile as she spoke, more to herself than anything else "of course she would…"

"why, what happened?"

"I promised her that if we arrived on time to give the new techs the introduction I would give her a full cleaning service after she got dirty again in the storm from earlier"

"well guess she's waiting for you then"

"yeah, could you tell her that I'll be down with her in a few minutes?"

"where are you going?"

"getting changed, I don't plan on giving her a full wash in these clothes"

after about five minutes Katie entered the room that served as the cleaning station for the AIs, it wasn't a very big place, anything in between a ten by eight meters or so; the black and blue Mustang stood in the middle of the room with her scanner tracking back and forth in a calm manner "Glad you finally made it"

"I was going to do it you know, I keep my promises and we had a deal, you completed your part so now I'm completing mine" she settled the bucket full of different products down right in front of the car "I just don't see why it had to be right now"

"because later there will be more things you will need to attend to and since tonight I will be introduced to my new group of techs there won't be much time left to do it later"

"ok fine then, I'll do it now, just keep in mind that all this does take a good three hours or so"

"I know, that was another reason why I wanted this to be done right now, that way you will have more time to get ready before you meet my new techs"

just over an hour later Katie was working on drying the AI completely, both her doors and trunk were open to let the excess water drip off before she used the rags to dry off the remaining water completely; music was playing off of the Mustang's speakers as the young driver worked her way around one of the car's sides. The sound of the music resonated in the room as it played song after song until suddenly the music was turned down to a considerably lower volume, a loud bang echoed around as Katie accidentally hit her head on one of the open doors at the sudden silence.

"KIRA what happened to the music?"

"we have company"

the AI's driver stood up rubbing her head, poking her head over the car's roof to look towards the entrance to the room where she saw one of the techs she had seen earlier this morning from the introduction, he had dark brown short hair and eyes and he looked like he was well toned yet seemed shy to interrupt her, rather quietly he looked around the car from his place by the door to see if he could find her

Katie stood up completely and walked around the door of the Mustang "Can I help you?"

"yeah I- sorry for interrupting by the way, I can ask someone else or look for you later if you're too busy"

"nah, it's fine, go ahead"

"okay uh, I wanted to check if by any chance you have the list of people that are going to be working with the AIs"

"I don't, sorry, and you are?"

"oh, of course, my name is Matthew, Matthew Clark. You can call me Matt though, for short"

"ok Matt, no I'm sorry but I don't know who exactly are going to be working with the AIs now but I do know that tonight there is going to be an introductory dinner to introduce each division of techs to their specific areas and work stations so you should know by then where you are going to be working"

"oh, ok great, and do you know at what time that is going to be?"

"sometime after dark? I really don't know for sure…KIRA?"

"the Introductory dinner ceremony is happening at eight p.m. tonight"

Katie looked from the car back to the guy at the door, he was now looking at the AI's scanner with curiosity and the slightest hint of admiration "well there you go, eight p.m. tonight, if anyone else ask just tell them that; a representative from each sub-section of the organization will call room by room on the people they are going to be working with and tell you guys where to meet respectively so you just wait and probably about an hour before the event they will start calling"

"thank you for your help, I'll go tell the others"

"good luck Matt"

"thanks…"

Katie nodded in the guy's direction before turning around to keep on drying the AI while telling her to turn the music back up to which the AI complied; Matthew kept his place at the door for a few more seconds looking at the AI before turning around and leaving.

It wasn't until a little over two hours later that Katie was finally almost finished with the last details on the AI, she had been completely cleaned and dried off inside and out and she was halfway through the waxing while murmuring to herself something about the most spoiled car in the world, the music was still playing on the car's speakers and filling the room for the following minutes until Katie opened the passenger's door and dropped right in with a sigh

"god how long has it been since I actually gave you a full wash like this"

"a few months, why?"

"I think I'm going to feel this tomorrow morning…geez"

"well on the other hand you still have a little over two hours before the introductory dinner so you have enough time to have some rest and get properly ready"

"always looking on the bright side"

"someone has to do it"

"and of the two the logical one had to be the one, that alone says a lot about me now doesn't it?"

Car and driver spent the following two minutes in friendly conversation until KIRA insisted for Kate to have some time to rest so the black and blue Mustang's driver climbed back out of the car and headed out for her pod while the AI took another route to get back in her place on the main chamber.

Around this same time in the area where the new tech's quarters were located the lead techs for each section were starting to make their rounds to announce to each one where they would be meeting for the second introduction, they started to speak amongst them as groups were formed to try and guess what they would be working on according on the area they had been assigned; most areas remained unclear but the one that was easy to guess for those that got it was that if they assigned you to the main chamber then most likely they were going to be working full time with the AIs, those in tech-work and repairs were probably going to have something to do with it as well as coding and programs.

As the time for the introduction approached each respective assigned are started to fill up, the three AIs were in their places by now and Mike and Sarah stood a floor above the main chamber looking down from the catwalk as people started to slowly come in and take their place along the edges of the large circular room, immediately they noticed that there was a small group of six of the younger techs that had come in talking excitedly amongst them and looking around the room, Sarah immediately guessed that they had an idea of what they were going to be working on and that was why they were so excited, this was always the case whenever a new group of techs came in, they all always wanted to work with the AIs and honestly she couldn't blame them, the three of them were really something special; the only problem that she could find at the time was that after seeing so many groups of people working with them only very few earned a permanent place to stay with them after rotations and so far none that she had seen were good enough to stay as a definitive team with the AIs, it wasn't because they lacked skill or abilities, every single tech that came through had an amazing logical profile and abilities but none that she had seen before really treated either of the AIs like more than just really advanced, high powered machines…seeing the younger group of techs now gave her the slightest bit of hope that maybe at least one of them would be able to stay.

As soon as the clock hit eight on the spot both drivers of the older AIs came down from their spot over the main room to stand beside their mechanical partners, by then Katie was already there and standing next to KIRA, lightly leaning against her side. Sarah started greeting everyone and started to explain in general what the people in the room were going to be working in before actually addressing everyone by name and telling them their working place and job they would be doing. Katie paid special attention when her mother started to call out the younger group of techs; first one she called out was the same guy that had gone to look for her earlier, Matthew Clark, who apparently was going to be working with her mother in a few occasions as general technician for the AIs, second one was a guy named Noah West, working with Billy as one of the general technicians for the main chamber, third came another guy called Ryder Prescott, who apparently was going to be part of the AI's engineering team; the two girls on the group were next, the one called Skyla Burton was going to work on the complex and AI's defense and security systems while Sydney Woodstruck would be the general mechanic for the three AIs while the one remaining guy, Connor Philips, worked as firewall and software designer for the complex and AIs as well. Katherine found it rather surprising that the whole team that was going to be attending to the AIs was made up of others around her age so slightly doubting her own instincts she made a mental note to go over their profiles with KIRA later tonight to be sure that they could actually fulfil the job properly when it came to something as important as the the wellbeing of the three Mustangs…

The introduction before dinner went by without much of interest besides that and Katie spent most of her time speaking to KIRA in a low voice so that no one else could hear them, the AI answered easily through her earpiece and at one point the two touched the fact that they were going to be greeting the new techs during dinner; Katie had argued that she would rather wait until morning to properly greet them but the AI had ended talking her into joining them for dinner and start getting to know them better so that in the end they could have a friendlier relationship; aside the fact that these new techs were all around her same age so it would be easier to establish a conversation and and actual friendship, Katie couldn't help but give a soft smile to the AI at her attempts of convincing her to spend some time with the new techs that were going to be working with her, KITT and KIFT for the following months…well if KIRA really wanted her to go for it then there was no argument there, she would go and spend tonight's dinner with them, maybe she could even specify them what exactly would be their role and she could learn a bit more about them besides what was said on the files.

As the first hour finished the distinct groups of people that had been separated started to pour into the large dining area where the place had been separated into section for the night so that each group started to get to know each other better and talk about their new spot with their superiors; the group of young techs that were going to be working with the AIs sat down in one of the smaller tables in one side of the room as they kept talking about various things related to their new positions; Kathrine watched them from a distance for a few minutes before actually walking towards the table and introducing herself by name, Matt recognized her immediately and the group brought over a chair for her to sit as they started to introduce themselves and asking questions.

"So, Katherine, you are the driver of one of the three AI's right?" Noah was the first to ask

"yeah, it hasn't been too long since I became KIRA's driver and we are just going to start going out on missions next month now that we're about to finish our training"

"If you're almost done why not test how well the training was by going out on a mission?"

"because apparently there is a lot of paperwork to do before I can officially go on missions"

"and are you going to be the only one to go out now that you two are done?"

"not really, we will be taking the relatively 'simple' missions for the time being and KITT and KIFT are still going to take care of the ones that have a higher level of difficulty"

"I have another question"

Katie turned to look to her other side where the blonde green eyed girl spoke next "Sydney right?"

"yeah, so, how is your relationship with the three AIs, not just yours, and what is your connection?"

"well first of all KIRA really isn't 'mine' she's her own being, same with the other two and my connection to the three of them is simply that my parents are their drivers; now KITT can be quite reserved to himself except when he's with my dad but we do speak relatively often and he's really the most experienced in just about anything amongst both workers and the other AIs thanks to his literal years of work in this field, KIFT can easily open up if she trusts you and between the three I think she might be the one that verbally expresses herself the most rather than just leaving it to body language like KITT and KIRA do…KIRA and I have a very good relationship simply because I've literally known her for my entire life, I grew up with her, she's very reserved like KITT and it can take a while for her to really trust anyone so if any of you do end up working directly with her don't feel bad or anything if she doesn't want to allow you access to her systems, special components and engine for at least the first month and a half; I do think that she's the one that so far has expressed her emotions more evidently than the other two but it's mostly through body language"

"okay wait, what do you mean when you say they can express through 'body language'?"

"yeah, at first it's very hard to tell but after some time you learn to read things like the brightness and speed of their scanner of even their…uh…posture, for lack of a better term"

"posture?"

"well this is rarely but often when in some special missions depending on the situation they tend to gain a certain posture by subconsciously manipulating how high or low their suspension is set and project some sort of 'feel' to them. this one time, for example, I remember seeing footage of KITT and my dad out in a mission and when my dad got surrounded by a bunch of men KITT came out of nowhere and scared them away from him by stopping in between them and Mike as some sort of barrier, while doing this his front suspension had dropped a bit while his rear rose slightly higher to the point that it really made him adopt this defensive looking stance. With time you also learn to read them by their sound, both in voice and the engine"

"how can you read them through the sound of the engine though?"

"it's surprisingly different every time depending on the AI's mood and the situation, once you spend enough time with them you really learn to distinguish all of the various tones that the engine can acquire and what they mean but it would literally take years of being around them to be able to tell the difference since it's very subtle most of the time. Of what I have noticed the sound tends to get a slightly higher pitch when in danger or when the AI is under stress and it develops a deeper rumble during a fight or a more engaging encounter to appear more threatening"

"this truly is fascinating; they really are way more than just cars or machines"

"you really have no idea…"

"ok then so how advanced are these three, more as in social interactions amongst themselves and us humans" this time it was Connor who asked

"how about very? For starters they really do treat each other like a real family, KIRA is, in my eyes at least as well as in almost every sense of the word KIFT and KITT's daughter, KIFT found her and the two helped in the development of her AI as well as literally helped design some of her core programs. They don't see it like that though, go tell them that and you'll start an endless conversation about how it would be physically impossible as well as illogical, can't beat an AI in its own game I guess. Their social interactions with us humans are quite complex, since we are such a tactile specie in general it was agreed from the beginning that there should be a way of transmitting this sort of information to the AI; the three have a really absurd amount of micro-chips infused within their paint and interconnected with cables that run underneath the car 's panels and interconnects everything into a large central core that transmits the feeling to be interpreted by a specialized program"

"so they can actually feel when you touch them and everything?"

"yeah, they have that ability and to a detail that KIRA even told me in a few occasions that she is able to feel the wind moving over her surface when driving at certain speeds, the rain, small rocks and the direct impact of the sun if it's strong enough"

"that is really incredible, you were able to basically replicate what in essence was an entire nervous system on the cars; but haven't they gone through missions when they have faced like, guns and fights of the sort?"

"yeah, there's not a single mission I've seen when they don't at least get shot at"

"what happens then?"

"well their Nano-skin protects them against really receiving any damage but they do feel the impact of the bullets and from what they have told me it's not something that hurts them, really, but it is a very uncomfortable feeling; when it comes to larger weapons or actual contact between cars or other structures it does have a slightly bigger impact on them in that regard"

The group spend the rest of the event in questions about the AIs until Katie started asking them about themselves to the point when after a while the conversation topic really started to have a larger variation about just general events in their lives and experiences to just introducing themselves more in detail.

The following morning Katie set her alarm earlier after agreeing with KIRA to go watch the sunrise together like they used to more frequently before, she dragged herself out of bed and put on the first shoes she saw before heading out to the main chamber to meet the black and blue Mustang that was already active and waiting while the other two still remained on their recharge mode. Silently Kate climbed inside the car and both left the still dimly lit room through the dark tunnel and into the still dark woods over to the spot where they always parked, this time Katie climbed out and sat down in front of the car with her back against the warm surface that contrasted with the brisk, fresh morning air looking out to the quickly changing colors of the far sky where the sun rose. The AI kept asking Katherine about her talk with her techs the night before, she seemed to either have a very particular interest in them being so young or just took the opportunity that they were around the same age of her driver to have an early look at who her new techs were going to be, whatever it was the black haired young woman thought that it had actually been good that she had gone to talk to them beforehand, all of them really seemed like they were good people and that they had what it required to be here and work with the most advanced AIs in the world; they all had a great deal of interest in the cars and after some of the questions they had asked her Kate was sure that they were going to be different from the previous groups that she had seen come and go since they seemed to actually take interest in what the AI was as a whole, not just a machine or a car but an actual sentient being, they were good to her and answered all of her questions with ease as they all got to know each other since it wasn't until later into the conversation that Katie discovered that none of them knew each other before this and yet they seemed to have created this friendship in the span of just over an hour since they arrived at the main chamber before the introductory dinner.

The two kept talking about several things as the sunrise took its course before driving back once the sun was high enough to give off a good amount of light, the black and blue Mustang entered the main room and parked between the older AIs as the few people that got up earlier in the morning walked about; Katherine headed for her pod and changed into her day clothes before heading back out to get something to eat over at the cafeteria where immediately she spotted a few of the new group she talked to yesterday at a table…after what she had seen yesterday it looked like maybe, just maybe, she could actually make friends with them…after a few seconds of standing in her place looking at the rest of the people in the room she shook her head before walking towards the table again and greeting everyone; as time went by the rest of the group started to arrive and eventually they all left the room to go to the main chamber and get started on their new working stations and check over what they were going to be working with.


	4. 4 First Mission

**Chapter 4**

 **First mission**

About a week had gone by since the arrival of the new group of techs and everything had gone smoothly, no new missions were on the line and it served for the techs to really get used to their stations, Katie was finally going to go out on her first mission with the AI, it was a relatively easy case, Katie would need to gather evidence to take down a supposed mafia group that had their base of operations about six hours from their location and as the last preparations were taking place in the main chamber KITT was having a last minute talk with the younger AI.

"Do you already have all the files on the mission KIRA?"

"Yes and I have gone through them with Katie"

"all systems checked?"

"Self-diagnostic is complete and all systems working under optimum standards"

"Weapons and defenses?"

"Fully operable...aren't you worrying a little too much about this?"

"When we talk about you going on your first mission alone and that far away I have my reasons to worry"

"It is not a particularly difficult mission, and Katie is the one doing most of the work so if anything you should be worried about her"

"my job Is not to worry about her, that's yours, and it doesn't mean that I don't care about her or that I am not worried for both of you but her safety is and will always be your primary concern"

"I know that, it already is but I still do not understand why are you so worried about us going out in this particular mission"

"When you have as much experience as I do and have lived enough to know all the possible scenarios you tend to have more reason to worry than one would imagine…are you sure you are ready to go out on your own?"

the young AI looked at KITT next to her for a few seconds "more than ever" she answered opening her door for Katie to get in as soon as she saw her entering the main chamber.

As Katie got settled in inside the car Sarah approached them, the AI lowered her window and the lead tech leaned in to look inside "You two ready?"

Katie looked over to her mother then "I think so, we have everything that we need"

"Nervous?"

"kind of…sort of, Should I be?"

"First mission alone, what do you think?"

"well…yeah okay I am a bit nervous"

"Everything is going to be fine, you just need to get some information and you're done"

"Easy enough right?"

Mike then approached the car and gave his daughter a few instructions before also saying his farewell and stepping back. The room's large entry door opened as the platform where the AI stood turned around to exit, the Mustang's engine came to life with a loud growl as the two moved out and left behind their family and recently acquired group of friends.

The drive over to the city the the mafia group was settled seemed fast enough for Katie, she didn't know if it was because of her own nerves or if she had somehow fallen asleep at some point during the drive, for most of the time KIRA was giving Katie the mission briefing and by the time they were done reviewing what was going to be her cover identity and what their plan was going to be for the second time they were just under five minutes of entering the city. Once inside KIRA was quick to scan the area looking for their target's location and in no time was lost in the city, it had been easy for her to locate where the gang was staying once she received their encoded signal's number from Billy and now she was parked a few blocks away from the actual location.

"Do you know exactly what you are going to do now?"

"Well I go, get in and say that I'm there looking for the job and from then on is just improvisation and good luck...right?"

"For the most part, do you have your cover ready?"

"Of course, do you?"

There was a pause "Ready..."

"Oh come on, is not that bad is it?"

"I wouldn't mind if it was at least a good cover...or something less decrepit…"

"What do you have?"

KIRA then displayed on her windshield an image of what was going to be her alt mode for the mission, at the sight Katie 's face got distorted by her attempts at hiding a huge smile "That is...not so bad…" the young woman said, still trying to suppressing her laugh

"Katherine…It's horrible"

"Come on KIRA, it will only be for a while"

"You know how much I take pride in looking my best, this is clearly the complete opposite"

"I know, but It's getting late and we have to do this now. I need to look like I'm desperate for some fast cash and rolling up in a super car will not be helping that matter"

"fine...initiating transformation"

Hiding on the shadows of an alley KIRA started to transform, she became taller, longer and wider as her trunk's door disappeared leaving it open as it became longer and slightly wider, her headlights became bigger and her electric blue stripes disappeared, her tires got bigger by the second as her rims too folded back revealing bigger chrome ones as the car's deep black paint morphed in a few spots into exposed metal and rust, the previously pristine Mustang was now an old pick-up truck…

The AI sank lower on her tires in defeat as she settled into her new body "Happy?"

"Yes, but you are such a baby…"

"we must start moving then"

It was sundown now, two people where innocently standing next to a huge warehouse on the docks of the city overlooking a lake and just minding their own business when an old black pick-up truck pulled up in front of them, a young woman came out of it and started walking over to them

"Identification?" One of them asked

"My name is Tessa Banks; I came here for the job you offered"

The two guards glanced at each other before nodding and opening the door, letting her in, one of them came in with her while the other stayed out. It was well lit place, from the outside it looked like an old building that would probably fall apart any second but on the inside...it was a whole different story.

There were some decorative furniture decorating each section of the building, fancy paintings hung from the walls and some areas where lined with fine carpets. At the very back of the building was another door which the guard opened for her before leaving, Katie didn't really expect it to be that easy, was she in, was that all she had to do now? The young driver was left to wander in the room alone, it was quite big and well decorated and at the back of it was a neat desk with some papers laid in some sort of order on top of it

"KIRA?" She asked trough the earpiece

"Yes Katie?"

"Are there any cameras or sensors in this room?"

"Only one. I need you to sit on the couch and act natural for a minute"

"why?"

"To create a loop"

"Smart…okay" she did as she was told and after a minute KIRA finally gave her the all clear with the loop "you may now do what you need to, the loop is done and no one will know what is happening inside this room for the following minutes"

"Okay great, I have something here, I need you to keep an eye out and tell me if anyone is coming so that I can go back to the couch and you can interrupt the loop"

Katie started to look through the papers that laid on the desk, they were mostly small bills and payments, nothing of interest; there was, however, a locked cabinet on one side of the desk that immediately called her attention "Found a locked cabinet"

"Do you think it has anything of interest?"

"well if it's locked then it must have something important"

"can you find the key?"

"it has to be around here somewhere and-"

"Katie" KIRA interrupted abruptly "someone is approaching the room"

The black haired woman then quickly placed the stack of papers as it was on the desk and went to sit at the couch just as the door opened; a well-trimmed, tall, slim man walked in, he was wearing a black suit with a red tie, He kept walking until he reached the desk and sat down, gesturing for Katie to do the same in one of the chairs in front of him. The man went through some of the papers on his desk before taking something from one of the drawers behind him, the whole time he was playing with a small keychain between his fingers and Katie could clearly see a key that ,judging by its size, would fit perfectly into the locked cabinet from before .

"So...why do you want this job? Really" he asked

"I heard I can get easy money in a very short period of time, is it true"

"It depends…do you know what this job really implies?"

"I do"

"and yet you are still willing to take it?"

"if I wasn't I wouldn't even be here to begin with now would I?"

"well in that case, Tessa Johns, you are part of my little little show for as long as you play by our rules and do the job"

"when do I start?"

"later tonight. I want to see what you are really made of"

"what do I have to do?"

"I'll send someone to tell you when the time is close, for now, choose a room and make yourself at home" he said before getting up and walking towards the door, holding it open until Kate was out. She was smart enough to take one of the empty rooms that where relatively close to the main office, she needed to find that key and she was sure he left the room without it so it might still be there, it not then at least she could search around a bit more.

Once Kate made her way silently back into the room she locked the door and started to look around for any cameras, luckily she didn't see any but just to be sure she thought that there was nothing wrong with asking the AI to check once again right?

"KIRA I need you to scan the room and check if there are any microphones or hidden cameras, look closely"

"already doing so...it looks like you are clear, did you see the keychain the man was carrying?"

"yeah, it had the key to the cabinet I told you about, do you know where he is now?"

"he went back to his room and there are no cameras there that I know of or have access to"

"so we practically reached a dead end?"

"if you want to call it like that, was the key not there?"

"nope, what now?"

"the only thing we can do is wait until they give you an assignment and see where things go from there"

"or I could walk around the building and see if I can find anything else"

"I strongly advice against it"

"why?"

"you just arrived so they will be keeping you under close surveillance for the time being, I could create another loop if you go back to the room but it will be a matter of time until they notice something is wrong"

"I think its worth taking the risk, I really don't want to end up doing the mafia's dirty work"

"there is nothing else you can do at the moment but wait and follow orders"

"...are there any cameras around the building?"

"one on each hall and at least one on each room other than the living area"

"well in that case keep an eye on me and tell me if anything is out of the ordinary, I'm going out to take a look"

"Katie I don't think-"

"do you trust me?"

"of course but-"

"then trust me when I tell you that everything is going to be fine"

"but-"

"trust me"

"...I trust you Katie"

"thanks, where are you?"

"parked on one side of the building"

"okay keep your scanners up and link to the cameras you need I'm moving in"

"please be careful Katherine"

Katie started to walk around the building, taking in anything at least moderately important, she hadn't yet met with any of the other people in the building and she was actually glad for that; after walking around for a few minutes she found a particularly mysterious door at the end of a hallway, walking towards it she was surprised to find it open and even more when she found it led to to the outside 'interesting…' after standing and looking out for a few seconds she turned around to get back inside until a peculiar sound called her attention; getting out she saw quite a group of men unloading a small truck that was full to the top with all kinds of weapons and ammo. 'well I found where everyone went at least…'she took out her phone and took a few pictures of some of the men so she could use the recognition software in KIRA later on, just as she pulled her phone away she felt something cold and hard on her shoulder followed by the voice of a man that had her frozen on the spot.

"put your hands up where I can see them" Katie slowly stood up and turned around to face one of the guards she met at the door earlier pointing a gun at her "what do you think you're doing?"

"taking in some fresh air"

"give me the phone"

"what?"

"phone, now"

she started to pull her phone out and rising it up for the man to take, just when she was about to let go of it the man fell limp to the ground, revealing an old black truck in the shadows behind him "I think I told you to be careful"

"why didn't you warned me about him?!" she said pointing to the sleeping man

"if I had you would probably try to get away but he had already seen you and it would only make things worst"

"don't do any plans without telling me first, scared the hell out of me" a sigh "boy am I glad to see you though…and what did you do to the poor man anyway?"

"I simply used a very strong sedative"

"you know is not polite to shoot people to sleep right?" she added with a smile

"it's not polite either to threaten someone with a gun…"

"Right. well enough fooling around, what do we do with him now? he is going to wake up eventually"

"good question"

both stood thinking for a few minutes until the young driver looked up to the AI with a smile "I got it" An hour had passed since Kate's little incident and now she was entering her room again talking to KIRA "Now please record it when it does happen okay?"

"I'll be sure to do so, how did you come up with that idea?"

"it just came to me, he smelled like alcohol already so I guess that making it look like he had passes oud with a bottle in his hand would work for us"

"even though you had your fun back there from now on please promise me you'll be more careful"

"yes mom"

"Katherine this is serious"

"I will I will...or I'll try at least"

"I warned you about going out"

"yeah" she said as she laid down on the bed "but you know better than anyone else that I never listen"

"Katie, a group of men are heading in your direction"

a sigh "then I guess it's time to receive my assignment" she said sitting back up as someone knocked on the door

"come in"

five men dressed all in black entered the room, followed by the man Kate had talked to earlier "are you read to go Jones?"

"you haven't yet told me what I have to do"

"take this" he threw a small gun at her "use your imagination, go to the main entrance in ten minutes" then he left followed by all the others

"what did he say?" the AI asked through the earpiece

"I-I think I know what my mission is..."

"what do you have to do?"

"I think I have to kill someone..."

"are you sure?"

"gave me a gun and told me to use my imagination, pretty sure I'm not doing any target practice. it's the mafia what else could it be?"

"what else did he say you?"

"to meet him at the entrance in ten minutes"

"go, I'll be monitoring you with a camera and my scanners"

"okay"

Kate did as she was told and went to the entrance where the boss was already waiting for her

"okay what exactly do I have to do?"

he handed her a small file with a picture and some general info of a man "this guy refuses to pay a loan he took from us a while ago, finish it" she nodded and went to her truck, once she was out of the property she started to work on a plan with KIRA

"okay so what can we do?"

"I have a special gun you can use, it contains the same tranquilizer I used on that guy earlier and on a side note I think you will be glad to know that your plan worked"

"did he wake up already?"

"yes, would you like to see the footage?"

"no I'll save it for later"

"take the gun" the AI said as she opened her glove compartment revealing the gun

"do we at least know where he is?"

"fifteen minutes away from our current location"

"well at least he is close"

"did you find anything else?"

"not really, how about you?"

"I got the identifications of the pictures you took, they all have an extensive criminal record that goes from robbery of a mini-mart to murder"

"then why are all of them still out if they have the record?"

"you have to remember who they are working for, the mafia has a lot of money and resources to keep a man out of jail"

"right...we have to take this guy down, do we at least have a name for him?"

"his name is Markus Florence, also known as the ghost, a very renown Mafia leader, he was part of a street gang in New York when he was fifteen years old and from then on everything started escalating until he became leader of his gang shortly before turning to the mafia for money"

"any evidence of him?"

"no, the few times he is the one committing the crimes there are no traces of him ever being there and that is why they call him 'the ghost'"

"so we actually got a hard one didn't we?"

"I think we could have ended with worst cases"

"how are we supposed to take him down then?"

"he keeps track of the crimes he has done we know that for a fact, maybe the files are in that drawer you saw"

"I bet they are. how close are we to this man?"

"his car is parked just up ahead" KIRA said as she parked in an alley in front of a few stores that were now closed this late in the night

"what now?"

"we wait until he comes by, then do the job"

luckily they didn't have to wait long, since after a few minutes the two saw the man, Jake Lewis, walk around the corner and head for his car, he was having trouble getting his car's food to open and his clothes where far from good condition, it looked like he had been going through some hard times recently.

"I just feel bad for him"

"we have to get this done" KIRA said lowering her window so Katie could point the gun

"I really don't want to do this" she said as she loaded the gun and aimed out the window, finger on the trigger

"remember that you are not going to kill him"

"I know...I don't like shooting at people, even if it is with a super tranquilizer and not an actual bullet"

"you have to do this"

"…will he be okay?"

"he will probably receive a good hit when he falls to the floor but other than that he should be fine"

"Will the mafia men believe it?"

"they are watching you as we speak, as soon as the man drops to the ground it should look like the job is done. Are you ready"

"no…but what else can I do?" Kate pulled the trigger and the man fell to the ground, laying motionlessly on the spot

"done" Katie said with a sigh as she threw the gun into the passenger's seat "are you sure they guys know it's been done?"

"a car just took off from one block away driving on the warehouse's general direction"

"talk about stalking people"

"they send someone from the outside to supervise each hit they make to make sure it's done as instructed"

"won't they realize that we didn't actually kill him?"

"since they had already seen the shot, they will probably think that he is actually dead"

"maybe you're right...let's go back before something else happens"

"Katie wait"

"what is it?"

"you need to take out one of the bullets from the gun Markus gave you"

"what for?"

"if he checks the gun and finds it fully loaded you could rise suspicion"

"I guess you're right" Kate took the gun and pulled out one of the bullet from the cartridge, placing it in her pocket afterwards "can we go now?"

the old black truck arrived back at the warehouse to be met by Markus and some of the other workers at the entrance, Kate parked her truck in front of the building and got out, standing leaning against the car.

"Did you finish the job?"

"You won't be having any more problems with him: Katie said handing back the gun, just as KIRA had said the first thing he did was check the cartridge, effectively finding that one bullet was missing "Did you really only use one bullet?"

"I have a good aim; did you expect any less?" Kate stood straight and walked in between the men and into the warehouse, heading for her temporal room. As the night wore on people went back to their rooms, by the early hours of the morning almost everyone was asleep except three guards at the main entrance...and Katie

"KIRA you there?"

"always"

"I need you to create a loop on all cameras that can get me all the way from the exit of my room to the main office"

the AI complied to her driver's instructions before giving her the all clear to move out. Katie ran through the hallways being careful of not being seen by anyone still around, looking to both sides before every turn and carefully listening for any noise as her training kicked in; she kept moving that way until she finally saw the office that she had seen Markus leave the key in at a later hour in the night, KIRA had confirmed that it was still there but the question now was, where in the room? there were many placed to hide a key, it could be either on the desk or on the small wardrobe or even inside one of the tiny decorative boxes that stood on a shelf next to the door.

"okay KIRA I need some help here"

"what for?"

"there are three possible places in which the key may be hidden and I don't have time to go through all thoroughly, can't you scan them?"

"not from my current position"

"you think that if you get closer you might be able to?"

"maybe, but I have three guards behind me standing on the door"

"great...okay super car go ahead"

"excuse me?"

"where should i start searching?"

"I already told you I cannot scan that far for objects that small"

"I know, I got you the first time"

"then why do you still- "

"a hunch...what's your hunch where should I start"

"a hunch is an intuitive feeling; I don't do hunches...but I can tell you that there is a higher probability it is in one of the boxes on the shelf"

She rolled her eyes "was it that hard?"

"That was not a hunch, it was based on probability, I would suggest for you hurry up since, more people are starting to wake up"

"are they heading here?"

"no, but the chances that they discover my loop and eventually find you have increased"

Katherine quickly started to open each of the tiny boxes until she found the key, quickly she ran towards the desk and opened the cabinet that was indeed filled to the top with papers, she took a stack out and started to look through the files.

"KIRA we got what we were looking for"

"did we?"

"yeah, this are orders he filled out for some of his 'jobs' ...murder, kidnapping, bribing everything we need is here"

"then I would suggest you head back to your room quick before someone notices"

"right" She folded the files and hid them in her jacket, carefully she opened the door and got out.

Kate started to work on her way back to her room and in just under two minutes she had made it, entering her room and quickly turning around to lock the door she leaned against the wall with a sigh, she had made it...she had actually made it!

"everything okay there Tessa?" a male voice asked. Katie froze...she turned around to Face Markus and three of his men "you look pretty agitated"

"just went out for a walk around the place, getting to see what's really around here"

"Did you really. I hope you had some fun, why don't you come with me for another walk"

"I'm pretty tired right now, how about later?"

"come on, it will be fun" he grabbed Kate by the arm and took her out of the room with him then. all five of them walked through the building and exited through the back door that led to one of the small piers. seeing where the situation was leading and taking advantage of the background noise of the water on the lake and passing cars on the far road as well as the passing boats she called for the AI

"KIRA they got me, we need a plan" she whispered

"I am already working on it. I still have eight tranquilizer darts, do you want me to use them?"

"no, you can't shoot them all at once they will realize something's wrong"

"I have another plan then. but you have to do exactly as I say"

"go ahead"

"I'm going to drive directly towards you scaring the men off, I will turn just in time to avoid hitting you so you can get in quickly. it is very important for you not to move"

"okay"

by the time she finished making up a plan with KIRA she found herself at the edge of the pier

"you shouldn't never mess up the mafia you know? it will never end well"

"really? I thought it was all happiness and joy…"

"sorry to tell you that that's our strongest characteristics. we get rid of things that don't work out"

"like you've been doing for years to all these people?"

"and you just go yourself a ticket to be the next one, a shame really, I had hopes for you"

a screech of tires was heard making everyone turn to find a black Mustang, it stopped a few meters away from the group and revved it's engine before speeding straight towards them; Markus stepped back quickly but his men remained and shot at the car until it got too close and they had to jump away, the car suddenly turned nearly missing them as it opened its door, in a second Katie disappeared inside the car as it started to drive off at high speeds.

"you nearly ran me over!"

"you're welcome"

"you literally nearly ran me over!"

"I told you it was going to be close"

"You said you where to turn in the last minute not that you were going to come so close that I could feel the freaking vibrations of your engine as it moved a millimeter away from me!"

"were you injured?"

"no but-"

"then don't complain. do you have the files?"

"yeah" she pulled them out of her jacket and placed them on the passenger seat "can we go back now?"

"I don't see why not" KIRA then went back to her normal mode and headed for the city limit as she informed HQ that they had completed the mission successfully, sadly for her Mike told her that she would need to at least stay in the city for the rest of the day to make sure that the police managed to take down the group once the evidence was fully analyzed, apparently in under an hour there would be a large group in charge of taking them down and she was to be near the place in case their help was required.

An hour later the two were parked over on one of the higher parking lots of a building that overlooked the warehouse, from their vantage point they could tell that the cops were handling everything pretty well and that it had been of some help that they had arrived right as they were getting ready to move out after that morning's events "well what do you say?"

"I believe that they do have everything under control"

"could we go back now?"

"more than likely, I doubt that if they didn't require our help now they won't be needing us"

"yeah, send a message back and tell them that we are heading back out in a few minutes, we'll call once we're half way there"

the two went back down the parking lot and started to head out of the city as they talked about the events on the previous mission, it took them a few minutes before taking the highway that would take them to their destination and as the hours went by the brown and flat background that surrounded the road started to morph back into green fields that grew into hills and larger mountains.

Kate had immediately opted to have some real rest on the way back after staying almost all night up going around the warehouse and not really being able to have any sort of actual tiredness in her situation, now that she was safely inside the AI's interior heading back home sleep was much easier to achieve to the point that it wasn't until they were just over two hours from their base that she woke up

"glad to see you're awake"

"geez, how long was I out?"

"over four hours now, but you did deserve some rest after this mission"

"yeah no kidding, did you inform HQ of our return?"

"yes, they are getting everything finished and making sure the surrounding area is clear for us to get through"

this conversation started the usual back and forth between the AI and her driver for a few minutes before the two turned to their own business; Katherine simply stood looking out the window to the blurring trees as she left the control of the car to the AI. They were the only car around that she had seen for the longest time and she found it interesting that they had the entire road for themselves; closing her eyes for a few minutes she opened them again to see nothing around other than the trees around them and now a lone black car that was driving some distance behind them, she closed her eyes and opened them again a few seconds later to see that the car was now driving closer to them and it looked like it was approaching rapidly.

Straightening herself up in her seat she started to pay a little more attention to the dark gray car behind them "KIRA have you seen that car behind us?"

"not until now that you mentioned it"

"you didn't notice it or just didn't pay attention to it"

"I mean that I did not see or detect the car at all until now that you mentioned it"

"something's not right…" Kate asked KIRA to open up her rearview camera and zoom in on the camera, at first there was not much that Kate could really make out of it until she caught sight of the amber-gold light that was on top of the car's grille "KIRA we need to hurry"

"Is something wrong?"

"check the car behind us closely, what do you see?"

there was silence from the AI for a few seconds and Kate could feel the sudden change on the car's engine's feel and sound "Katherine-"

"I know, send a distress signal back to base, ask for ID confirmation to make sure that the car is actually him and not anything else…and start picking up speed, we can't let him reach us if that is really him"

"but I thought that he was-"

"me too, but we saw the files and apparently this guy has a knack for beating the odds"

"Kate you saw in those files what he is capable of doing and if he catches up to us the probability of leaving this encounter unharmed is-"

"I know" she tightened her grip on the wheel "don't worry KIRA, we're in this together"

the main chamber of the base was in relative calm, the new group of young techs were on their respective stations working on a few things and preparing the last details to receive the AI once more back home; the silence was shattered when the white lights that bathed the room flashed red for a few seconds as a loud sired started to fill the entire complex, on the main screen a message was displayed in bold red letters 'Emergency: Priority 2 Grade A1' the older workers knew what was going on but the new group could only stand and watch to try and figure out what was happening, Sarah came in running through one of the hallways and logged into the main computer to answer the emergency call as her face paled considerably, Katherine's serious face appeared on the screen

"Katie what's going on, we got KIRA's emergency call"

"We need confirmation from you guys, I think we're being followed…by KARR"

"What?!"

"I noticed this car behind us a little bit ago but I didn't think anything of it until it started to get closer to us, I told KIRA about it but she couldn't detect any signal coming from the car so when I saw it though her rearview camera I could clearly see what looked like a yellow scanner on top of its grille, KIRA saw it too now, I think we're in big trouble right now"

"what are the two of you doing right now?"

"I left control of the car to KIRA, she's trying to get away from him but if anything I believe he's getting closer"

"try to stay away from him for as long as you can, we'll see what we can do here. KIRA keep the chat line open at all times and send us live video feed constantly, do not interrupt this connection no matter what and activate your secondary shield"

"Will that keep her from getting hurt?"

"not from KARR…but it'll make it so the damage isn't as strong"

Sarah started to shout instruction to the techs around her as soon as she closed the chat line and left Matt in charge of monitoring the AI's systems and statistics while she went out to do something else in another adjacent room, people ran around getting data from the video feed that was being directly broadcasted to them by KIRA. The large screen that took up the wall in a large section of the circular room displayed mainly the satellite image of the area where KIRA was driving in relation to where the base was located, the two were still way over an hour away and a thousand things could go wrong now.

As the new group of techs worked on their current tasks they occasionally asked each other if they knew what was all the fuss about this other car, Matt told the others that he had heard Kate call it 'Karr' none of them knew who the guy was but if everyone was panicking so much about it, including the AIs even, then this was a serious threat; they needed to help KIRA get away and find out who this guy was…


	5. 5 Friend or Foe

**Chapter 5**

 **Friend or foe…**

"KIRA bring up your system's diagnostics on screen, leave the rearview camera on the side and focus on driving and driving alone, I'll do the rest" the AI obeyed immediately as she started to pick up speed again to try and stay ahead of the older AI chasing them; Katie noticed just until now that the tone of the AI's engine had changed since she realized that they were being followed, but this was not a sound she had heard before, this new variation sounded more strained and less rumbly, if the young driver had to guess she would say that not only was the black and blue Mustang worried, she was terrified…

KIRA had seen the files, Katie showed them to her that one time Sarah gave them to her and since then she started to understand why KITT worried so much on occasions but it never really sunk into her all that much up until now, now that the actual threat was real and just a few meters behind her, everything was starting to make so much more sense to her and the reality of what this AI had done in the past hit her with a force strong that it physically pushed her to try and drive even faster; the base was still a considerable distance away and even if it were closer she couldn't risk leading him there and with his years of experience the probability of her actually being able to outsmart him in this terrain was too small to even take into account; the other option she could think of was to eventually lose him in the highway but even with all her training she would probably loose on any resistance based challenge against him

"KIRA?"

the AI was brought back to her present situation by her driver's voice, she could tell that her, too, knew the scale of the problems the two of them were in at the time; the Mustang divided her attention to look at her driver as she called her while looking over her analytics with concern on her face

"I know you are scared; I know you are worried for the both of us but I need you to try and calm down a little, focus only on driving and don't think about anything that could distract you at the moment"

"Katherine I don't believe that I'll be able to do that considering our current situation with- "

"KIRA your systems are starting to overheat, you have too many things on your processor at once and that's not going to help us get away, if we want to have a good chance at escaping then I need you to try and look at things objectively for a minute; I'll always be here for you, we'll make it out of this in not time"

Kate felt the seatbelt tighten around her ever so slightly as the AI took her words to heart even though deep down she even knew that those words sounded hollow even to herself, she had read those files to detail and if that other AI had really gone through as much and was back once again in apparently good condition then she was sure that escaping unharmed from this situation was far from likely

As if to prove her point she was pulled out of her thoughts by the strong impact of the other AI ramming the black and blue Mustang from behind, on impact a bright yellow wave similar to that of an EMP surrounded the car for a second; the sudden impact had shocked the AI enough to give her a newfound sudden burst of speed to get some space between them again, as she did this however she detected that for some reason she was no longer able to use her full abilities to get away, whatever that wave that came from KARR was it had either damaged or blocked her systems from being used to their full extent.

"Kate you still there?"

"dad? Yes, we just got hit by KARR, something happened KIRA can't use her engine to its full extent anymore and she says that her power is being consumed faster even, what is happening?"

"hang in there KIFT just left to meet you guys halfway here, she'll distract KARR while you head back"

"is mom with her then?"

"no, she left on her own…"

"what, why?"

"we don't know, she just left without telling anyone, I'm working out the details with KITT, just try and stay away from him and she'll reach you two soon enough"

the chat line ended there and Katie felt some relief in knowing that KIFT had gone out to help them but as she saw the black car behind them get closer she hoped that she wouldn't be too late…

from the very moment that KITT was pulled from his musings by Katie's voice on the big screen saying that KARR was behind them his system had kicked into overdrive; immediately he pulled up a map of the area around where he detected KIRA's signal and he was surprised to see that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't detect his brother's signal, he somehow managed to perfectly conceal his unique signature and that fact alone worried him about what other upgrades he could've given himself after all this time of staying in the dark.

"KITT" the midnight black Mustang turned to look at KIFT next to him, the quick tracking of her scanner gave away that she was just as worried as he was "we have to do something, KARR is chasing her for whatever purpose and even with all her training I don't think she'll be able to fight him off, if it even gets to that…"

"I know, I am trying to see if there is anything at all that we can do to help them from here but as it stands it really looks like it's all up to her and Katie"

"why can't either of us go for her?"

"because we don't know how much KARR has upgraded himself, if he has the means to take either of us down without much trouble then his real plan is to lure us out, we'll be giving him exactly what he wants"

"we have to do something, we can't just sit here and wait"

"at the time we have no other choice, we have to trust that KIRA and Katie's judgement and training will get them through this"

without a second's hesitation KIFT turned around her gimbal and shot down the main entrance while switching to her attack mode, there was no way she was going to stay at base while Kate and KIRA were under KARR's attack. She could feel KITT pushing to try and get in contact with her through her block but there was nothing he could do to stop her…

Mike walked into the room in panic as he started to ask Sarah all about their daughter's situation, he knew very well what the evil AI was capable of and he was just as agitated as the AI behind him; A few minutes went by as the techs all around the room started to rush into their stations and try to break the shield that was keeping them from getting KARR's signal, Katie had called back to inform them that KARR was getting closer and they were out of options now that the only chance they had of keeping their speed over his was out after that impact they had received.

Katie started to go over the AI's system diagnostics to see if she was able to find whatever system had been damaged or blocked by the energy wave and try and check if there was anything she was able to fix then and there, before she was even able to start checking over her systems properly the car's HUD started to flicker and shimmer in place until it turned off completely

"KIRA what just happened?"

"a blocking signal is being broadcasted by KARR, he shut down all of my external links and communications"

"what does that mean for us?"

"that we are on our own out here with him with no way of calling back to base"

"we need to get away from him now, switch to manual I'll drive while you try and find what system was blocked by that energy pulse earlier and-"

"Katherine hold on tight now!"

Before the young driver was even able to question the AI the car was pushed from the back to a side in order to try and make her loose her balance, for a few seconds the AI fought for control as her own speed and momentum carried her forwards at high speed while she corrected herself to avoid hitting any of the trees on the side of the road until eventually the matte black Mustang that was KARR pushed her off to the side and pinned her against a tree with little to no effort as he unfolded himself into his bipedal form to hold onto the car with more ease; for the longest time the only sound was that of the deep base rumble that was KARR's engine against KIRA's higher pitched growl in sheer panic, from the tall robot a bright yellow current flowed through his arm and into the younger IA's hood where his clawed hand was pressing down, lights flickered on and off inside and outside of the car and on both the front windshield's HUD and the surface tech located on the hood a long series of numbers in binary code flashed through in under a second before all the lights on the car turned off, leaving the two AIs in the darkness of the trees' shadow under the low light of the late sunset.

From the very moment that KARR had pinned her against the near trees on the side of the road she knew that something was about to go awfully wrong, as soon as she saw him unfold into his true self her systems froze in panic as he placed one of his hands on top of her hood to pin her down; the current that flew from him into her literally shook her systems as the stream of data settled somewhere in her, before she was able to try and find where it had settled to contain it another impact on the outside called her attention, the large AI had let go of her hood and was standing to his full stature, towering over the car. This could've been her chance at escaping, she could drive off and try to leave the older AI behind but for some reason she was frozen in place staring at the dark figure in front of her as the golden scanner tracked back and forth with all the calm in the world, as she looked over him a white flash crashed into the robot's side, sending it tumbling to the ground some distance away.

KIFT stood directly in front of the younger AI already in her attack mode, KIRA's scanner was tracking fast and she still wasn't moving even after she called her name more than once, another sound made the white Mustang's attention turn to her side where she saw how the older AI starting to get back up from the fall; having no other option KIFT rammed the front of the black and blue car just hard enough to make her come back, the flickering of her scanner on impact was enough for the white Mustang to know that it she was back again so she backed away from her to allow the young AI to get out of the place she was stuck in.

After realizing that she had been sitting still in front of KIFT and that her way was no longer blocked to drive off she took control of the car and took off leaving double scars on the pavement as the white and blue Mustang stayed back for a few more seconds before turning around to leave behind her.

Katherine looked through the windshield in horror at the hulking beast of a machine that stood tall in front of them, KIRA wasn't responding to her calls and the moment the robot's hand came down hard over the Mustang's hood she held onto the steering wheel with her life as panic filled her senses, she had no way of contacting base and the two of them were literally at the mercy of the evil AI, a flash of yellow called her back to reality in time to see the bright current that flowed from the robot's hand into the AI's hood as the HUD flashed before showing a long series of ceros and ones for a second before flashing and turning off completely; Kate called KIRA multiple times but she received no answer as KARR stood back up to his full stature and looked down at them, she knew that both her and the AI were stuck looking at the figure before them in fear up until Katherine was distracted by the large AI flying off and falling to the ground a few meters away, KIFT was standing in front of them in attack mode calling out loud KIRA's name but still she wasn't answering. Kate tried to bring back up the system's diagnostic to see if there was anything she could do but the screen wasn't even working properly; without warning she felt a hard impact as the screen flickered back on and KIFT backed away from them, leaving enough space for them to drive off, before Katherine was able to take control of the car KIRA launched forwards and back into the street, picking up speed fast as KIFT drove some distance behind them while the shape of KARR on the rearview mirror getting back up started to grow smaller…

"Any sign of them yet?" Sarah had arrived back at the main chamber right after they had lost all contact with KIRA, all of the techs in the room were trying to locate the young AI but even after a few minutes they were not able to find a trace from them, to make matters worse they had lost contact with KIFT upon entering a heavy forested area near where KIRA had disappeared, what worried them the most was the fact that it wasn't the trees that were causing the interference.

"no sign of either of them yet Sarah"

"you sure Billy?"

"completely, I already have a satellite view of the roads they could take to leave the area in case they do so if they get out of that stretch of forest road we'll be able to see them"

a few more minutes went by before Connor spotted something in one of the several satellites displayed on the large screen "there, top right feed! I think that's them"

Sarah enlarged that one feed to see the two AIs leaving the dense forest at high speeds "yeah, that's them. Connor check if they're being followed"

"It doesn't look like they are; the problem is that even though we can see them I can't find their signal"

"they must be under some sort of basic EMP or blocking shield that affects their communications; they won't be able to contact us either so we'll just have to wait until they come back. Keep your eyes on them and tell me if anything else happens" the lead tech then turned around from the computer to address the rest of the people in the room "we have the two AIs coming in hot, get everything you need to check them over once they arrive ready and stay alert" as soon as she finished people scrambled about and ran to get the required equipment as Sarah went towards KITT "I need you to go out and make sure KARR isn't following them, check if he even is still out there, do NOT engage in combat just check over the area and come back with whatever info you can collect" the midnight black Mustang flashed his scanner in response and turned on his engine as the platform spun around to face him towards the exit.

Katie sat on the inside of the car looking behind her every now and then to make sure that they were not being followed, KIFT was now closer behind them and from her point of view KARR was nowhere to be seen "KIRA?..."

"I'm sorry Katherine, I don't know what happened back there, for some reason I was not able to make my systems respond, maybe it was a malfunction after the initial impact of the interference wave that brought down my communication link or-"

"stop, KIRA, that was not what happened and you know it…" the young driver waited to see if the AI would say anything else, when she didn't she continued "you don't have to make any excuses about it, I felt it too but I guess it affected you more because both him and you are AIs"

"I still feel the need to apologize since I failed to defend ourselves from him"

"what?"

"there were an infinite number of things I could've done to break free from his grasp and yet I didn't, placing the both of us in more danger under KARR's hand"

"you did not fail anyone, much less me so-"

"did you think about what could've happened had KIFT not arrived in time? Katie because of me you could've been hurt or even worst, you know what KARR can do we both saw the files…"

"KIRA, I don't blame you for this, you shouldn't feel bad about it either. KIFT arrived on time and that's all that matters, we are both safe now…are you okay? You did receive quite a hit back there"

"I'm fine, some simple repairs will do enough and the rest I can fix on my own"

"you sure? Your lights were out back there and your screens are still flickering from time to time"

"I'm sure that will stop as soon as the repairs are finished"

"and what about that strange energy current that flowed down from KARR into you?"

"I have tried to find if it did anything to my internal systems or if it stored itself somewhere but I think that because I can't really find anything that it might have something to do with me not being able to access my communications still"

"right…I still don't like it, make sure mom goes over your systems when we get back, no one knows what should and shouldn't be there more than her"

"I don't think that's really necessary, but if you insist I'll tell her to do a full system checkup"

There was silence for the longest time between the two, the only moment Katie spoke again was when a set of headlights appeared on the distance, a few seconds later she managed to see the red scanner on top of the car's grille; KITT drove past the two in the opposite direction without saying a word and in under a minute he was already out of sight "what was all that about?"

"I don't know; he didn't respond to me"

"you think he's going after KARR?"

"I highly doubt it"

"why?"

"if he was going after KARR then most likely he would already be transformed into his attack mode to try and get to him faster. I am assuming that either someone sent him to survey the area or he decided to go do that very thing on his own. Either way you can still ask once we get back"

"how much longer until we get back to base?"

"approximately fifteen more minutes"

The two cars entered the main chamber to be greeted by all of the techs in charge of the AIs rushing in to them, they great majority of them remained on KIRA since she had been the one to receive a greater impact from the older AI. Kathrine climbed down from the car as techs rushed in with different devices and accessed the computers attached to the platforms that were connected directly into the AI to give her systems a full check. On both AIs remained black markings from the same type of paint that had been on the other cars they faced before, which confirmed their theory of them working with or for KARR in some way, that would explain why KARR now had a full matte finish instead of being his characteristic glossy black but it also looked like while the paint was similar than the one they found before it was not identical, this new mixture was rougher and it took the techs longer to scrape off, it really looked like it had stuck itself to the car's surface with some sort of magnetic force that after being analyzed it was discovered that the paint now had also been infused with incredibly small magnetic dust that mixed in with all the other metals and components it activated the magnetic nature of the otherwise dormant magnetic particles on impact with another electrically charged metals AKA: anything that had any sort of charge different to that of the host

"Katherine!"

the black haired driver turned around from looking at the AI to find her mother entering the room again "are you okay? Did you get hurt? How's KIRA?"

"mom I'm fine, KIRA says that she didn't take much damage but back there I saw this current of energy flow from KARR into her and neither of us know what that was or did; she says it was nothing but I don't want to take any chances with him so do you think you can check over her completely and see if there's anything out of the ordinary?"

"sure I'll get to it as soon as the other techs are done with her. Are you sure you are okay?"

"I'm sure, don't worry. Where's dad?"

"he should be back in a few minutes now that you two are back so just wait here for him"

"what about KITT? We saw him drive past us a little bit ago on our way back"

"I sent him out to check for any signs of KARR back where you two met, to make sure that he was gone; if everything goes smoothly, and I hope it does, he should be back in under an hour"

the midnight black Mustang started to slow down as he approached the area where they had lost KIRA's signal, using his recently acquired updated sniffer program he was able to detect faint traces of KARR's signal still lingering about, he understood now why their scanners or satellites couldn't detect his signal now that even with this program he was just able to find the trace; he followed it back until he reached a heavier forested area where she signal stayed around in stronger concentrations mixed in with the stronger signal created by the black and blue AI, he guessed that since KARR's signal was slightly stronger here he had transformed into his bipedal form or something of similar nature, over to one side a large tree was slightly leaning to one side and some of its bark and branches on a higher area were broken or scraped off; KARR had definitely used his bipedal form here and he had KIRA pinned against the tree, after that the two signal jumbled up together and a new entity appeared…KIFT, she got there and knocked KARR over to give KIRA a chance at escaping before the two drove off back to base while KARR went the opposite direction. The fact that KARR chased KIRA down for some time and attacked her before leaving after simply being knocked down was particularly interesting, why had he done it? Chasing her for nothing and leaving without a trace afterwards…something was very wrong about all this but he didn't have a clue about what could be happening. After staying around the place for a few more minutes the AI turned around and started the journey back, he needed to know if both KIFT and KIRA had made it back unharmed".

KITT entered the main chamber calmly to find a few remaining techs checking over KIRA while Sarah stood over the computer linked to her on the platform "well KIRA it really doesn't seem like there's anything different or wrong with your systems, your communications programs are fixed now though so it could've been something with those"

"thank you Sarah, I appreciate you taking some time to check over that"

"no problem" the tech turned over to the older AI as she saw him parking in his spot "found anything?"

"not really, I got very faint traces of KARR's signal, that would explain why we couldn't detect him with our normal scanners back here but there was no way of tracking where he could've gone and no visual evidence of him being there really exists other than the few skid marks on the road and the broken bark and branches of a leaning tree"

"is there a way we can figure out why he was there then?"

the young AI was partially listening to what KITT and Sarah were talking about for the following minutes, after that she broke off into her own self to let everything that had happened earlier settle in. a few hours later most of the people in the main chamber had gone to sleep and the lights had been dimmed down to their night setting for the AIs, KIRA had unintentionally interrupted her recharge cycle since she couldn't get her troubled processor to slow down, she was still too preoccupied with the previous events to stay at ease and even her scanner still remained tracking faster than normal, to anyone else there wouldn't be a difference but those that knew her well would be able to see it right away, even though its tracking motion was nowhere near as fast as it had been back with KARR some vestige of speed still remained; deep down she had a feeling that something was terribly wrong and no matter what the black and blue Mustang couldn't shake it off...

"something troubling you still?"

KIRA looked besides her to the white Mustang as she called out, since there was no one currently awake in the place close enough to even hear them they did not bother to talk to each other internally, besides, it wasn't all that often that they were able to do so…"the events from today, that encounter with him, I can't get over it for some reason; I'm still agitated even though I know well that he's gone and we're safe here…I don't know why"

"in all honesty what you are feeling is understandable, KARR has a very strong presence, so far you just knew of his existence not that long ago and only by the files you read and by what KITT and I told you afterwards, that previous knowledge combined with the unpredictability of his actions and his surprise appearance must've had quite an impact on you"

"I want it to be over, I know it's over but the feeling is still there…"

"I know you well enough to be sure that you'll get over it fully by morning, it takes time and eventually, if the situation calls for it, you'll be able to go face to face with KARR in battle"

"how do you do it?"

"do what?"

"you and KITT, you seem to have no real fear of him and are able to take him on without question, back there you rammed into him without even wasting a second"

"that comes with experience and knowledge, I was never truly afraid of him in the same way you are because he was the first thing I knew when I was brought online"

"I do not understand, was he ever good then? To work with you and KITT in the past?"

"not quite…unlike KITT, who was created by Dr. Charles Graiman years ago a while after KARR's failure back in his first tests I was created using KARR's AI programing for a base by another group of techs, I worked for him for a little while before Sarah and the others took me in with them"

-Flashback: three months before KIFT's arrival at the SSC-

Everything was a dark void around her, awareness of space for her in this present time was not something that was possible and even it had just been a short time since she had been brought online the feeling, or lack thereof, was starting to become very bothersome; sometime after that she started to see and feel new streams of date being imported into her neural network as codes and preset programs were copied into her core system in waves until she was finally able to see the confines of her own body light up with a mix of yellows and whites. The recently activated AI started to wander over the new data and examine its content. it was strange to just have fully formed programs and preset commands this early in activation instead of them being developed or ported in with time as the computer developed and grew but she paid little attention to it as the flow of data continued for some time until a heavier program was dumped into her and the car was finally able to gain some scheme of look at the outside world around her, using low sound frequencies she produced a constant low frequency sound that bounced back off of every solid structure around her to form the image of her surroundings, it was a little bothersome at first to have to constantly control the echo-location system every now and then until she was able to set it to a certain value of strength and timer to have a constant image around her.

Some more time went by, the AI couldn't know exactly how long it had been since there was no real way for her to tell what time it was or if it was day or night, she had been left to her own devices to get her new programs in order and she didn't complain; without any sort of warning a new entity broke through her low end encryption and busted through one of her internal ports, the presence was giant in comparison to her and it created a large black and yellow cloud of data and energy that rippled with waves of golden electricity, not knowing the origin or purpose of this new entity the smaller AI started to try and push it away with more blocks but she only managed to make the black and yellow cloud grow more in size and agitation.

The new entity rushed towards the smaller flash of energy and pinned it against one of the core walls, surrounding it completely, the few seconds that it held onto the light yellow presence he made it very clear that he was the one in charge and that she was to obey his every command or face the consequences; going through an intrusion like this that early in activation caused this particular memory to imprint itself into her core and stay there for future reference. Eventually the large entity left her alone once more and the smaller AI remained frozen in place for the following few seconds before more carefully, knowing that this being could go in and out of her systems as he pleased, continued to arrange the stream of data that was being uploaded into her.

The days that followed she continued to go over her new systems and updates as the larger entity peered into her every once in a while before retreating, eventually she started to get access to systems that allowed her to have an idea of her surroundings and to have actual control over her body but it wasn't until the very day that she was taken out to test her mobility that she really got an idea of this other entity and his dominance over mostly everyone she had seen at the time that was in the near area; it was clear to her that only one man remained unmoving whenever the large AI unfolded and transformed while all others stepped back. The spark had felt before the black and yellow cloud's strength the moment he once was required to blast off some barrier or door, he did so with little to no effort and that in itself was enough to let the smaller AI know that if she didn't obey him then that could be her, in all honesty she didn't have a choice in the matter and since this world was the only one she knew there was no real way for her to really identify good from bad…that was until she was finally requested to help KARR in battle, even though she was far from being complete the smaller AI obeyed and launched off of her place and towards where she detected the older AI's signal.

As as soon as she detected another entity she knew she needed to go attack it, help him defeat it or run from it, either of those would work; for the first time after almost three months since activation she felt the true power of the larger AI, through the same program she used to find her way around through sounds and sensors she felt the impact of metal against metal that resonated during the fight, whoever this new entity was it was really putting up a fight. The moment KARR instructed her to stop the unknown AI long enough to let him and the others escape she knew she had to find a way to keep it from moving, using a near building to her advantage she pushed it against it and used her available strength to keep it there; it worked for a little while until she was pushed back by the other AI in a sudden burst of speed just seconds before her world went black…

-End flashback-

"that was the last thing I remembered before coming back online already here, shortly after that was when I realized that I had been living on the wrong side of the fence, so to speak, the time I worked with KARR; that is the reason I was never truly afraid of him, I simply learned to respect his power back then and make sure to stay away from his bad side"

"then what about KITT? He never truly interacted with KARR before his first battle with him back in the desert all those years ago, yet he wasn't afraid of him then and he's still not afraid now"

"you read the files I suppose"

"yes, I did read them thoroughly and there's nothing that indicates otherwise"

"we all have our fears, KITT still fears him to some extent but after today I hope that you'll be able to control that fear to your favor if the time calls for it. Relax, it's all over now and tomorrow's another day…"

after a few more minutes the main room resumed its silence and the two AI's scanners where shut off, signaling their current recharge state, it took KIRA a little longer than KIFT to be able to resume her recharge mode but once she settled down her system fully she was able to finally have some rest…or at least that was what she thought, unknown to her a small package had found a place to hide and remain undetected, the lack of energy from the AI activated the new system that had now copied some of the AI's base programing to remain undetected by her antivirus or the outside computers, slowly moving around the peaceful dormant core it latched itself into a few systems and began its work…

the cool darkness of recharging was suddenly shattered by sounds and voices far in the distance, slightly becoming more aware the AI focused on amplifying them to try and detect where they were coming from amongst the darkness that surrounded her but it seemed like the sounds themselves were all around her. The voices died down after a bit and the sound of an engine took their place, it sounded familiar to her, KITT? No…what was happening? The AI didn't understand anything of what was happening. Flashes of light and sparks started to shine around her as she was suddenly back in the forest road where she had met KARR, the large AI materialized in front of her with a growl of his engine standing tall; KIRA was frozen in place once more as KARR's hand pressed down over her hood, Katie was no longer inside her and everything around her was completely silent except for the two's engines and the moment KARR increased his pressure on her she braced for the worst. The second the large metal hand was completely removed from her she looked back up at the figure that now backed away from her a small bit, folding back into his regular Mustang form; the AI hesitated for a moment but once again her curiosity got the best of her and in a low voice she spoke…

"you are KARR…right?"

"do you know about any other AIs besides me?"

well that was a stupid question wasn't it? "what do you want with us?"

"well I was looking to finally meet in person the product of KITT and KIFT's work, conventional ways would never work so I moved to unconventional"

"that really doesn't answer my question"

a sigh "fine, you really want to know?" he drove forwards a bit more, KIRA moved an equal distance backwards to maintain the same space between the two "I came because I wanted to reach you before they filled you with misconceptions of who I am"

"well then I'm afraid it's too late now, nothing that you say will change my mind after reading those files"

"well I really doubt that, yes I was involved with KITT in a fight years ago in that desert but everything that happened after was taken out of context and now I'm looking like the bad guy"

"because you are…"

"you don't believe me, understandable considering how young and inexperienced you are, I am not surprised. If you really want to know what happened, what's not in your files, then come back to the road where we met yesterday. Alone"

"you really think I will trust you after all this?"

"I never really hurt you back there, did I?" there was silence from the younger AI as her scanner tracked back and forth in a quick manner "meet me at midnight, if you want to know the truth, don't be late"

the all black Mustang backed away before taking off into the road and disappearing in a matter of seconds, as KIRA tried to move again she found herself unable to do so as the world around her swirled back into flashes of lights and unidentifiable voices before falling down to reality and into her own physical weight so abruptly that the car shook as her scanner came back on fully with a flash of bright scarlet that matched the pure sound of her startled engine roaring to life; to her horror it was now morning and most of her friends along with the other AIs were awake and going through their own activities before being startled by her sudden awareness, realizing all the attention she had accidentally brought upon herself after the sudden jumpstart the black and blue Mustang sunk lower on her tires with an internal sigh 'great…'

"so…"

"so?"

"what was all that back there?"

"Katie I can assure you it is nothing you should worry about"

"KIRA you just jumped out of nowhere, your engine came on, your lights flickered…you really expect me to think it was nothing? Come on I know you better than that"

"Kate please I-"

"no don't 'Kate please' me, I know that was something different and there is something you are not telling me. Like I haven't been with you for my entire life, you know we can read each other like an open book so go on, tell me what was all that about"

the AI stood quiet thinking about what to say, she knew that she couldn't tell anyone what had really happened because they would oppose to her going out and even though she had every reason to trust all her friends and family she had a feeling deep inside her that something was just off, she needed to see this for herself; Katie looked at her directly before abruptly pulling on the side of the road and getting down, standing in front of the car with her arms crossed "so?"

"Katie I already told you that it really isn't something you have to worry about, I promise that if anything feels wrong I will tell you right away"

the young driver unfolded her arms and took a few steps forwards to be closer to the Mustang, kneeling down she placed a hand over the warm surface above the scarlet scanner and looked directly at the tracking light "well, if that's the case then…just please remember that I'll always be there for you for anything, ok?"

KIRA flashed her scanner lightly as she answered back to her driver, Katie climbed back into the car and the two started the drive back home. During the drive KIRA couldn't help but feel the gnawing feeling of guilt at the back of her processor after Katie trusted her like that even though she didn't tell her the truth about what had happened, still the AI knew that even though she had told her that she would back her up anytime that telling her about last night's happenings and her plan on meeting KARR at midnight would immediately make her jump out and deny her going alone, if not going at all to meet him; KIRA remained quiet for the rest of the drive back and she could feel the looks of the techs around her as she came back in, for the time being she could only hope that most, if not all, the techs would be gone and asleep by midnight and plan on how to make her way out undetected…

Katie climbed out of the Mustang and headed to the large cafeteria on the far side of the complex, she had only grabbed an apple earlier and hunger was really making itself know now that it was close to one-o-clock in the afternoon, she was happy to find that by then the new young techs of the main chamber were all sitting at a table eating, gladly se joined them and of course the first thing they ask after some random conversation for a few minutes was about KIRA, they all had been there the moment she jumped abruptly when finishing her recharge.

"well if you guys want to know so badly then okay: I took her out for a drive afterwards for a good hour or so trying to get her to tell me what had happened, she said it's nothing related to her systems and that everything's in order, according to KITT and KIFT's scans there really isn't anything weird with any of her programs so that was not some random malfunction"

"but if that was not what caused it then what happened?"

"well Matt I tried to get it out of her earlier but she won't say anything, only that I don't have to worry about anything and that it's all fine"

"do you really believe that?"

"she's an AI, she can't lie…and I trust her, after basically living with her for my entire life I have no reason not to, if she said it's fine then I trust her"

"maybe do another checkup of her systems, just to be sure, there's still that one strange energy current that flowed into her from KARR"

"my mom did one yesterday as soon as we came back, KITT and KIFT scanner her when we came back earlier and out of those three there was nothing out of the ordinary, she seems to be fine"

"if you say so, but after this morning's jump I really have my doubts about that"

"…so do I…but I can't do anything about it, if there even is something actually wrong with her systems there is no apparent way for us to know, if that's the case then KIRA herself wouldn't know it"

"did you see anything particularity strange when the energy current flowed into her?"

"I don't really remember, I was too focused on KARR to even pay attention" she remained quiet for a few seconds looking between the faces of the group "wait…there was something, I think, when the current flowed into KIRA her HUD flickered and for a second it showed a series of ceros and ones before the screen turned off completely"

Matt was about to ask something else but Noah beat him to it this time "ceros and ones you said?"

"yeah, why?"

"Binary"

"what?"

"Binary, zeros and ones, it's usually a computer's first language so if KARR did do something to her then

it's hidden somewhere in her code now"

"so how do we get rid of it?"

"since it's something that can't really be detected by scans or checkups, as we saw already, then the only way to do it is by doing what's basically a sweep of her entire system"

"and how do we do that?"

"we can't but KIRA is able to do it on her own; if we activate her safe lock then the system will create a backup of all her system and identify anything that shouldn't be there, no matter how small and get rid of it. If there is something in her that KARR installed it would be eliminated"

"well it sounds like a good way of making sure that there really is nothing wrong with her systems…I'll tell my mom and dad tomorrow morning about it and see where it goes from there"

"why not now?"

"because they left a few minutes ago to investigate how did KARR's remains were built back up"

"and how are they doing that?"

"well they took a team out with them in one of the larger vans to go with the company that recovered his remains from their last fight with them to check what they did with them, if they sold them then they would have to go after the buyer but if they were stolen then the whole company would be in trouble for not telling us that they were stolen"

Sydney jumped back into the conversation then from her place "well they couldn't really know what those remains of charred metal and electronics were now could they?"

"they knew, my parents told them specifically so that they kept them secured at all times"

"but they didn't…apparently"

"apparently…"

the group finished their talk about the topic and resumed with some more trivial conversations for the following hour before going back to work. Katie stayed around the main chamber for a while, she knew that by the looks of things KIFT and KIRA were involved in some sort of conversation between them since both their scanners were slightly dimmed down, KIRA's moving slightly faster in comparison to the older AI's calmer tracking motion suggesting that whatever they were talking about it was making her quite anxious so based on that Kate guessed that the two were discussing the same subject she had been talking about with the other techs earlier. The thought of going with the white and blue Mustang to speak to her about it crossed her mind but she could feel that KIRA was already under enough stress with yesterday's events and now everyone asking her about this morning so instead she walked away to her room and logged into her computer to pass the time with a few games.

later that night her group of friends, consisting of Matt, Noah, Ryder, Skyla and Sydney, met at the smaller rec room where they lounged and played some games amongst them for the first time since their arrival, the hours flew by and without even noticing it was past midnight; Skyla and Ryder went out to get some drinks for the group so grabbing a few sodas and waters from the cafeteria before making their way back, they walked past the main chamber as they did so Skyla glanced into the large open room where it took her a few seconds to realize that one of the AIs was missing; stopping suddenly mid conversation she took a few fast steps back making a double take and immediately dropped the drinks she was carrying before taking off running

"Sydney what happened?!"

"KIRA's gone I have to tell Katie!"

"what?!" Ryder took a few steps back to find the station that was normally occupied by the black and blue Mustang empty, a bad feeling settled in the pit of his stomach as he ran back following Sydney back with the others.

It was from that point on that time lost all meaning as everything happening blurred together into a jumbled mess of events, the moment Sydney had entered the room out of breath in panic saying that KIRA was gone Katie had dropped down the controller she was using and went to confirm what she had heard just as Ryder entered the room in a similar state saying the same thing; Katie ran out of the room as all the other stopped what they were doing to follow her.

Kate stopped on the entrance of the room when she saw the middle platform empty, KITT and KIFT remained in their recharge mode somehow so she went to get them boot up as Matt went to set off the alarm; Kate ran to where KITT was parked, sliding the last few steps to the ground and calling the AI's name, even with her knocking over his scanner and calling over the sirens and red lights that illuminated the room she was getting no response from the car, she supposed that if KIRA did sneak out she had probably used a low EMP to knock down both older AIs long enough for her to go unnoticed but if that was the case then she had probably left not long ago, considering that they were still inactive, trying her luck with KIFT she received the same response so instead she turned to the group standing behind her "guys we need to do something, each of you go to your stations and start searching for her signal"

Noah was the first one to speak then "if she wanted to leave undetected she probably deactivated her homing beacon, it's no use"

"use satellite imagery to scan the roads for any vehicles that match her color patterns, if we can't locate her signal directly then the best we can do right now is at least find her by visual"

everyone nodded before running off to their respective stations "Matt, you stay with me"

the tech turned to look at Kate curiously but said nothing "I need you to help me bring KITT and KIFT back, go to KITT's station and start the re-activation process through the computer directly linked up to them, I'll do the same with KIFT"

As techs started to fill the room the problem was immediately apparent with the missing AI since they all saw her driver in the room in the same state of panic, shortly after Mike was the first of the original group to arrive and his first stop was with his daughter

"Katherine what is going on, where is KIRA?"

"we don't know, I was hanging out with the guys when Sydney and Ryder noticed that she was absent when they went to get some drinks" the young driver spoke without looking away from the computer she was working on as Mike looked to KITT, seeing Matthew working quickly on the platform's computer

"and what happened to these two?"

"we think KIRA used a low EMP to sneak away without them noticing, Matt and I are working on getting them back up so that they can help us search" as she finished the last sentence the rumbling engine of the white and blue Mustang came to life as her rose red scanner tracked back and forth at a quick pace, clearly noticing that something was wrong from the moment she realized she was brought back online by the emergency program "Katie what happened, why is the complex in an emergency status and where did KIRA go?"

"okay long story short: KIRA is missing and we have no idea where is she going, when did she leave or why did she go out like that but we really need you to start helping us look for her" another loud roar filed the room over the sirens as the midnight black Mustang came back on in a similar state "okay great, KIFT tell KITT everything I just told you and start looking for her, hopefully she's not too far still"

The two AIs looked at each other in clear confusion, why had KIRA gone out like that and where was she going? KIFT started to try and think of an answer to all the questions that ran through her processor as her worries grew by the minute after remembering that KARR was still out there and even closer than they'd like him to be, with luck whatever KIRA was doing would keep her out of his way…hopefully.


	6. 6 Calm Before the Storm

ok...I know it's been literally ages since I posted in here and I said before that I wouldn't let such a big time gap go between chapters but I had a major block. fear not though, the last few chapters are already done and will be posted weekly until they are done

 **Chapter 6**

 **Calm before the storm**

it was now ten minutes past midnight and KARR had been patiently waiting for the black and blue Mustang to appear, he was starting to think she was not going to come even after he thought his tricks the previous night had worked when suddenly he detected a low, very peculiar energy signature in his scanners as he heard an engine approaching; driving out from his hiding spot in the brush on the side of the road he ended up face to face with a scarlet red scanner tracking quickly in a low glow.

"you are late…"

"I had some trouble trying to get out without being detected"

rather annoyed the older AI started his engine again and aligned himself on the road "Don't stay too far behind" with that the AI left double scars in the pavement as he took off quickly towards the highway leading to the state's border, the younger AI driving fast behind him. KIRA had been careful enough to deactivate her GPS without any of the people at the SSC knowing but by now she was sure that at least someone had noticed her absence and scrambled the entire base on that note; she hoped that by the end of this whole ordeal she could go back to base and get some answers if KARR was truly right about everything, The black and blue Mustang shut off all of her output signals and deactivated her own internal GPS just as a precaution and focused on keeping up with KARR…there was no turning back now.

The large main room of the complex had calmed down now, the lights and sirens had been shut off and most of the people had settled down on their respective stations to work on their respective tasks, to try and find any clues as to where the AI had gone; apparently the black and blue Mustang had been smart enough to loop the cameras while she moved around the complex on her way out. From the moment everyone set themselves to work KIFT had called Katherine for her to help her for a while to try and see if she knew anything about what had happened or provide any information to help in the search with her; while Katie was with the AI it was clear to her that the Mustang was worried, she could simply feel it somehow and she supposed that being the only one around to have literally spent her entire life with an AI had maybe made her more sensitive to this sort of things as subtle as they were. While the two talked Katherine remained half entranced by what was showing on KIFT's HUD: half of the screen showed the satellite view of various highways and low traffic side roads at that switched quickly while the other half showed files and images that flashed by too fast for her to even try to identify; eventually the missing AI's driver stepped out of the car and headed for a desk to work on her own just as her parents ran to her asking questions about KIRA to which the young driver could only tell them that she knew as much as they did as to what had happened to her other than Katie telling them about the talk she had with her tech friends the previous day.

Sarah looked absentmindedly at nothing as she though over what her daughter was telling her, running it over and over trying to make something out of it "that current must've done something to her…"

"mom you said that there was nothing wrong with her systems when you checked her over, even KITT and KIFT scanned her fully and detected nothing out of the ordinary"

"I know I did Kate but…there's no other possible explanation, that had to be it"

"is there a way of checking?"

staying silent for a few seconds she finally had an idea…"I think there might be…KIFT?"

the AI's scanner flickered for a second as she turned his attention to the outside "yes Sarah?"

"do you have the last full scans you got from KIRA?"

"I do, but why?"

"send them over to this computer please, you'll see what I want to try in a second"

Sarah sat in front of the computer she had signaled as several new files popped up, opening the first one she looked into the computer's mainframe and brought up another file of similar name "okay so, you see here-" she pointed to the file displayed on the right half of the screen "that's the last scan KIFT got from KIRA after the incident and that-" she pointed to the open file on the left "is the original source code from last month's update and general system checkup. The only thing I can think of doing at this point is comparing sections of code to look for any important changes that could hide some sort of virus or involuntary alterations to her core systems"

A light shone in the others' eyes as they understood what she was getting at, taking each a computer on the large main desk they set themselves to work on different sections of the code along with the AIs and the other techs that had lingered around and heard what would be their new course of action.

One by one she started to search through the code being careful to not miss any detail in the coding itself and its organization; by sunrise both Mike and Katie started to accidentally doze off while sitting next to Sarah as she went through the results of the scan that KIFT had sent, the first file had been apparently completely in order and so far the second file was looking good as well. 'maybe this is just another dead end?' next to her the black haired driver sighed at the thought of so much time wasted doubting they would find anything at this point, even If this wasn't a dead end though, what difference would it make in finding KIRA?...

Far away from the current stress going on at HQ the black and blue Mustang started to slow down as both her and KARR reached the end of a small dirt path they had been driving through for the past forty minutes to see a large paved open area with a large hangar-looking building just under a hundred meters from them, the large double doors struggled to open just enough to allow them entrance as they got closer but upon seeing the place at first KIRA started to doubt whether she should go inside the building or not; if she did then there really would be no way back until whatever would happen in there was over but if she didn't she was afraid KARR would question her and attack or just…do something and since deep down she still feared the AI that was driving just a few meters ahead of her. In the end she decided to avoid conflict if possible and just follow him in despite the possible consequences; subconsciously she slowed while looking at KARR and at the two guards that where standing at the entrance now, the AI started to go through possible worst case scenarios and solutions and after a minute of convincing herself that everything was going to be fine so she then picked up her pace until she was almost side to side with KARR.

The two drove past the guards into the building and it was just now that KIRA realized why the place looked so awfully familiar to her…how in the world had she not realized before? this was the back end of the old SSC that she was in; when they still had this as their base she came out here once or twice with KITT on some of her first training sessions years ago. The AI noticed then that the only entrance to the underground facility was still locked and welded shut as they had left it so with some relief still in her she realized that probably meant that they had not been able to break through the main doors either.

The two AIs stopped on the far left side of the room as guards and techs stood on the near wall with makeshift desks and computers settled in, working on their own thing; agitation started to creep into the young AI's core as the hangar doors were closed once more now that her only possible exit was sealed plus having this many people around didn't alleviate her uneasiness either, of course she supposed that KARR must've been fixed somehow but she did not expect such a large group to be involved since just now she scanned the area and detected close to thirty in the immediate property.

"wait here" KARR's voice pulled her out of her train of thought and back to the present situation as he drove out of viewing range around a corner leaving her alone and surrounded by techs and guards, despite the weird feeling she had she did not complain fearing what could happen if she did.

after a minute or two of waiting the guards immediately close to her turned on a second's notice and shot a small magnetic panel attached to a steel cable to her not much unlike the ones the red cars from two days ago, the strong magnets stuck to her surface like glue as the guards that had shot immediately secured their ends of the cables to the ground before she could do any movement big or strong enough to prevent them all to success securing her down; the minimum amount of wiggle room she had wasn't nearly enough to be able to try anything to get herself out of this situation. The AI's processor kicked into overdrive as the very characteristic sound of an EMP started to build up somewhere near her yet despite her best attempts at pulling at her restrains there was no sign that she would be able to get away…

KIRA lost herself trying to figure out how to escape while asking herself why she trusted KARR in the first place after all she had heard about him, it was all true, of course it was…how could she distrust of her friends this way? she started to feel very faint but persistent waves of the charging EMP and the second her sensors picked up said waves she stopped and turned her full attention to the invisible source, it was too far up on top of her for her lasers or grappling hook to reach from the angle she had and no other weapon she possessed could aim that high at such a steep angle so ultimately there was no way for her to stop it, what could only be described as fear started to creep up on the back of her processor as the proportions of her mistake settled in 'I should've listened to KITT…he was right all along and I still chose to ignore him…' the waves emanating from the device had already begun shutting down some of her systems as it slowly increased its strength and started affecting he more specialized systems and weakening some of the basic components that kept her from shutting 'What have I done?...'

after another hour of cross-referencing code lines Kate caught some movement out of the corner of her eye to her right, from one of the far hallways Matt was waving his hand to her, partly hiding around the corner, behind him she could see the rest of her friends waiting as one or two of them poked their heads around the wall as well. the missing AI's driver stood up and walked towards them and as soon as she rounded the corner she was startled by Matt talking before she could even ask any questions as the others just stood behind him "Kate, how well do you know KIRA's core systems and coding?"

"like the back of my hand, I've studied her systems since I can remember, why?"

"I believe Noah and I found something in her core coding"

"what do you mean by 'in her core' how did you guys even get access to that kind of information, you've been here for just over a month"

"I asked KITT for a copy of the last scan he got from KIRA, the same one he sent your mom to analyze"

"well if my mom is already working on it what makes you think that you could've found something that the very person that created that code missed?"

"look, I know that this might sound a bit strange coming from us that we just arrived here and we barely know the AI's, much less their core's coding, but please, just go over this, tell me that there is not something off with this section" Katie took the tablet that Matt had in his hands and started to go over the codes shown, paying more attention to detail in the highlighted section that her friends had found to be problematic; at first glance there really seemed to be nothing wrong and after a few minutes Katie was just about to tell Matt that there really was nothing out of the ordinary but right at the last second she noticed that there was actually something different on these codes "Matt…how in the world did you notice this change?"

"well to be honest I noticed just one or two differences, it was Noah who really took it up and uncovered everything that was wrong in the code"

Noah took a step forwards then and brought up another tablet with more codes in it "I took a copy of the original code and started comparing them side by side with every number, letter and character. I know that it's an insignificant change but if coding for over three years has taught me anything is that even the smallest numbers or order can make a big difference"

"yeah, there are very small inconsistencies in some of the numbers and other characters that I'm pretty sure are not supposed to be there. I really wouldn't be surprised if my mom missed something like this" Kate looked up from the tablet and to the two guys in front of her "come on you two, we need to bring this to my mom" Katherine had already turned around to walk away until Noah stopped her

"Kate wait!"

"what? What's wrong?"

"we were really not supposed to have these codes; Sarah will kill us"

"don't worry about that, leave it to me, you said KITT gave them to you right?"

"yeah"

"then it'll be fine, he'll back us up especially now that you guys actually managed to find something" Kate then looked to the rest of the group "we'll get together tonight on the rec. room we were in last night to keep on working so bring your laptops and whatever other devices we could need but keep it just between us since I'll be giving you guys some extra information that is strictly classified and you're really not supposed to get access to at all so if anyone gets word of it I will get in problems so big you can't even imagine…at this point though it's the only way I can think of to be able to find her sooner"

After the group's talk Katie went back to Sarah with Noah and Matt to tell her about the anomaly they had found but what to them could be the key to finding out what happened to KIRA to Sarah it was just a regular change that the AI could've made to adapt a new software or update, not really giving it much importance despite Kate's persistency so seeing this the young driver decided to really take matters into her own hands with KITT and KIFT. Later that same day she told the two AIs that she was going to keep on searching based off of what they had found to try and figure something out with the others yet when she told them about sharing some of the more classified information to her friends KITT was the first one to jump at her with the clearance protocols, rules and reasons why she couldn't do it, after arguing with her for a while he finally let out a defeated breath through his vents as he realized that this was the daughter of Michael Knight he was arguing with, this meant that he had little to no chance at winning and even if he did there was an even smaller chance of her actually listening to him and obeying the rules "if you truly think that it is safe to share this information and that they can help in finding KIRA then go on ahead, KIFT and I will continue searching through satellites so any relevant information you can find will help us"

"are you really going to let me do this then?"

"what other choice do I have?, if you made up your mind already then I doubt I can do much…besides, this is the only way of getting extra help on searching for her throughout the night and at this point I'll be willing to take anything to know what happened to her and where did she go out to"

Kate took a deep breath as she looked at the blue and red voice modulator on the dash, she too missed KIRA and was dying to know what had happened to make her run away like that and just vanish completely without a trace "we are going to find her KITT, I promise you that, we will do all that we can tonight to at least narrow down the possibilities"

There was a moment of silence between the two before the AI spoke again…"Kate I'm really worried about her…I miss her" as the AI spoke Kate was sure that she felt the car sink down ever so slightly, something she was sure that the only reason she was able to notice because of her growing up getting to know how every one of these three AIs moved and acted when expressing emotions in ways that sometimes even themselves didn't notice. Taking a hold of the steering wheel she promised KITT that they would find her and that everything was going to be fine, that she was going to be able to come back to base unharmed and everything would go back to normal before climbing down and heading to her pod to change into something more comfortable and get everything ready for the night that was to come.

About an hour later Kate sneaked into the rec. room where she was going to meet the others to find that Sydney, Ryder and Skyla were already there, settling in the place they had chosen as their own for the night's work "Ryder have you seen the others?"

"they should be here in a few minutes, Matt came in to drop his computer and said he was going to get a few things with Noah and Connor"

as if on cue the three remaining guys stumbled quickly into the room and on the ground as they tripped over each other with two backpacks and other things in hand, Katie ran to close the door behind them and looked at the three now getting back up from the floor "Matt, what were you three doing?!"

"we went back to get a few extra things" he straightened himself up before picking up a bag he was carrying and emptying the contents on a nearby table, revealing a large bag of chips, a smaller bag of peanuts, a few bottles of water and other drinks with various snacks. Noah and Connor opened their backpacks to reveal another three bags of different candies and a bag of powdered coffee.

"you guys risked being seen or followed for some food?"

"well if we are actually going to stay up all or most of the night searching we will be needing something to stay alert and be able to spot small details, some candies and coffee seemed like the ideal snacks for the night"

shaking her head in amusement and with a slight smile on her face Katie thanked the three for the food and gave a few more minutes for everyone to get settled in and get their computers ready.

"ok guys,let's do this, I am going to make a copy of a few files that I will be sending to you with additional information on KIRA's software and other viruses and malware that KITT and KIFT had faced before; with this I hope that we can get a match to one of these so we can figure out a cure or at least get a clue as to where KIRA is depending on what invaded her software and where or who it came from, questions?"

"wouldn't your parents notice tomorrow that a copy of said files has been made and downloaded?"

"in any other circumstances, Sydney, KITT or KIFT would notice immediately and stop it but since this is anything but normal we have their support on this to eliminate any traces of a copy being done"

"well then what about these viruses you said, I thought that the AIs were fully protected against these types of things"

"they are, all of the ones I am sending you were caught, identified and analyzed by the two as soon as they hit their first firewall, they never really got infected by it since after analyzing what it was they destroyed it completely without much effort"

"well if that was the case then what makes you think that any of these could've been the one to get to KIRA? Whatever this was there was no way of detecting it, even after several scans when these were all detected before even entering their systems"

"yeah, I know that, but the only way we currently have to try and identify whatever this is by checking how similar it is to some of these programs, maybe like that we can trace an origin point and track her down"

Sydney nodded her head in understanding as Kate continued to finish downloading the files before sending a copy to each of them to work on by checking the few areas of KIRA's codes that didn't match with the viruses and malware themselves; with some hope this would lead them to what really happened to the AI.

As the hours went by the group thoroughly analyzed each of the viruses and programs piece by piece to try and find a match with at least one of the corrupted sections in KIRA's core program, all of them checked whatever similarity the two had to make sure they all saw the same thing and that they were not wrong but despite two or three possible matches in the end they all agreed that it the matches made were too small for them to assure the relation on the virus and KIRA's codes; the late night hours started to take their toll on the techs and the possibility of getting to anything helpful was growing smaller by the minute, to them it really looked like this was just another dead end.

"anything on that last comparison Matt?"

the tech in question rose his head from the table to look behind him "nothing, that was the last bit of corrupted coding and there are no more samples to work with" he looked at Katie in front of him then, the same tired expression on her face "we're all out of options, this thing doesn't match anything we've seen before"

"there has to be something, anything at all that can give us at least a small hint as to what happened to her"

"if there is then it's not on these codes at all, there has to be another way we can-"

"there is no other way! We have no other traces or evidence that could lead us to her at all, nothing on highway cameras even…this was the only other thing we had left and if this is just another dead end then our chances of finding her unharmed, or even finding her at all are close to none"

Matt closed his laptop to get a better look at the young driver, the others behind exchanged looks as they realized the real severity of their situation, what if they really couldn't find her? "Katie we've done all that we can with the information we have, there is nothing else we ca do, at least from our end, to find her"

"there has to be something, something we missed in the codes or maybe-"

"Kate these codes are not going to work anymore, we already tried every combination and examined them thoroughly with the inconsistencies on KIRA's core program, there's no correlation, whatever affected KIRA has no origin point, it just looks like it appeared out of nowhere"

for a few seconds the black haired young woman kept her gaze fixed on her computer with the same look of helplessness; before Matt was able to say anything else he saw the look on Kate's eyes change, she switched her attention from her computer screen to him with a new glow in her eyes "There is no origin point…" everyone in the room looked at her in confusion, not knowing what she meant "Matt there is no origin point!"

"Yeah I know, that's what we all concluded on"

"no you don't understand, since there was no origin point then that means that there was no media that the virus traveled through to get to her which only leaves one other way of infection"

"contact?"

"direct contact, exactly, and what could've been the only time that she could possibly get infected recently?"

"the encounter with KARR!"

"we had suspected that it could've been him from the beginning but there was no way we could be sure about it, it was KARR, he infected her with some sort of virus or program when we had our run in with him that night"

"are you sure about that?"

"completely, when he placed one of his hands on KIRA's hood a bright yellow current crackled down his arm and into her"

"and if KIRA was as scared as you described to the point that KIFT had to ram her to get her attention then it makes sense that her system had maybe slipped into some sort of shock for long enough to allow the virus to settle in without being noticed"

"this also explains why her code was almost completely intact, since the four AIs share the same base coding then possibly the virus was engineered to adapt itself to the host so it copied KIRA's base program to hide and stay undetected, the difference between the virus and the original code was too small and that's why the inconsistencies where so small and so few"

"we need to go back to the main room, we know what happened to KIRA"

by now Matt and Katie were by the door while the others remained standing up on their place and waiting to see what the two would do "Kate it's five in the morning the room is going to be completely empty at this time"

"it's never completely empty, we have to tell KITT and KIFT, they can start comparing the affected code with KARR's own to start putting together his unique signature and trace it to where he's hiding"

the group shot out of the room and ran towards the main chamber through the barely lit hallways, entering the large open area of the room where the AIs resided, upon their rushed entering the two AI's scanners grew in intensity as they detected the rush they were all in and turned their attention away from their scans and to the group entering the room. the lights started to change to their normal intensity as Kate ran towards KIFT just as the others settled on their regular stations "we know what happened to KIRA!" at the mention of the white and blue Mustang's rose red scanner on her hood picked up its pace "what did you find?"

"the virus that took over her or program or whatever it was had no origin point, it was transmitted through direct contact and the only possible chance that could've happened was when we were with-"

"-KARR…" the group turned to look at the midnight black Mustang as he too realized what had happened now, the two Mustang's scanners paced back and forth quickly as they put together the pieces and realized what Kate was about to tell them "Kate I need you and your friends to take the main computer and start working on the relation between KIRA's corrupted core program and KARR's while I work on breaking down the affected code to see if there is any trace from KARR's leftover signature code to help duplicate KARR's signal" the AI turned on the large screen and the different stations that were able to access and work on it for the techs, immediately they all ran and organized themselves "KIFT sound the alarm and tell Mike, Sarah, Billy and Zoe what Kate and her friends found, once they are all up to speed help me break down the few fragments of KARR's code left in KIRA's so we can piece together the remains of his signal based on the faint samples I got from the attack and trace it to wherever he's hiding" a short flash from her scanner was enough to tell him that she had understood, a second later red lights flashed throughout the complex as the blaring alarm resonated in every room over the voices of Katie and her friends taking places on the station of the main computer

"okay Matt go to station two, Connor on three, Sydney take over station four and I'll stay on one, access is open for you three now, the sooner we can get this done the sooner we'll find KIRA"

shortly after the four started to work Mike and Sarah entered the room in a hurry, seeing three of the new techs working on the main computer while the other two helped from behind them as their daughter sat on the first station "Katherine Knight what in the world do you think you are doing?!"

"mom listen we-"

"why are your friends working on the main computer, they don't have access to it or the information that's-"

"we know what happened to KIRA!"

Sarah stood still for a second as she processed what she had heard, next to her Mike looked over exchanging looks between himself and Sarah "what?..."

"we've been working on finding her the whole night from the rec. room using our laptops but now we needed some information that is only available through here as well as a faster computer to work on; go with KIFT, KITT said she'll be explaining everything to you I believe"

Mike and Sarah went with KIFT as Billy and Zoe entered the room, the two immediately headed towards them in front of the white and blue Mustang as she explained to them what had been the plan the small group of young techs had for the night, what they had done for the past several hours as well as getting enough proof that KARR had been the one behind all this mess and how they all believed that he had gained control of KIRA in some way; knowing what had really happened throughout the night Sarah opted to leave Kate's friends take over this particular endeavor while Billy, Zoe and herself worked on trying to find possible locations depending on the two AI's progress on putting together KARR's signal.

A few hours later as the sun started to rise on the sky Kate and her friends had finished on separating the parts of KARR's code that were similar to the corrupted codes on KIRA, Katie jumped in KIFT then, looking at her and KITT"s progress on putting the puzzle pieces together; Matt approached the car and kneeled down besides the open door next to Kate to have a look at what they were doing while the others talked to Billy and Zoe in more detail about the pieces of KARR's code that matched some of the fragments in KIRA

"how much progress have you two made?"

"I'm afraid not much Kate, we have a copy of KARR's old programing and since he has been upgraded and modified since the last time we met it is very unlikely that the ghost signal left by his presence is the same now"

"wasn't KITT able to pick up some of it when he went back to where KIRA and I had our run in with him?"

"he was only able to detect small bits and pieces of him there and they were almost undetectable, that little information has been what we've been working with"

"is there any way we could help?"

"I do not believe so, piecing back together such a unique and complex signal by hand would take any human multiple weeks, that's time we don't have the luxury to take so KITT and I are working on finding the missing sequences from the initial signal that he found on that road by analyzing every possible combination of code and order of said code to see which one matches"

"well is there anything else we can do to help?"

"you've done more than we could ask for Katherine, now that you have finished analyzing both programs we have more to work with. We'll be taking it from here"

"KIFT I want to help, there must be something that at least I can do"

the AI stopped working then, placing her full attention on Katie, she saw her glance up at her screen for a second as files and data stopped moving about before looking straight back at her voice modulator with a look that could only be described as desperation "I know how you're feeling Kate and I know you want to find her just as much as I do but the best thing you can do right now to help is to get some rest, if we find anything else I will be sure to tell you. By getting some rest you'll be more alert and ready if anything happens" she glanced over at the tech kneeling by her open door " your friends should get some rest as well…you all did a great job last night"

slightly defeated but realizing now just how heavy her body fell on her now she decided to just listen to KIFT and get some rest; she stood up and Matt closed the car's door behind her before walking towards the others and leaving as a group to their own rooms where all but one was able to find an easy sleep. Katie tossed and turned on her bed with her eyes closed in an attempt to get some rest; something kept nagging at the back of the young driver's head with enough persistency to keep her from actually resting; the young woman stared at the roof of her pod thinking about nothing and everything at the same time for the few following hours until her mind got distracted enough to allow her to get some sleep.

As morning came to an end and the sun rose higher in the sky some of Kate's friends started to go back into the main chamber, Skyla and Matt were the first ones of the group and after getting something to eat they sat down to watch the slow progress on the screen in decoding and piecing back together KARR's signal; the blue bar on the large main screen had now move to just under a quarter of the way through and progress seemed to be just as slow as it had been before they left just some hours ago. The scanners on the two AIs tracked back and forth in a slow, soft glow that showed their focus on the task, Sarah sat inside the white and blue Mustang going over the two's progress as full bits and pieces came from KITT's link every now and then to settle into what they had pieced together until now, Sarah made sure that every new addition to the code had part of KARR's core signal and that it matched the rest of the full piece they had so KIFT could focus on using what they had to try and find a possible trace that could lead them to KIRA.

A few hours later Sarah got out of the Mustang to assist from her office with the search that Mike was conducting on the outside with a few scattered units equipped with a more sensitive sensor in hopes of finding some small trace of the rogue AI or KIRA to once again leave the recreation of KARR's signal to both Mustangs. As this happened Katherine stirred on her bed as flashbacks from her encounter with KARR and images of what he had done before that were in the files she had read played over and over in her mind for what seemed like an eternity before jolting up breathing heavily after the ordeal, calming herself she realized with some horror how easy it was for the oldest of the AIs to overpower KIRA; the few minutes that she was with him in the woods and the cars that had chased them a few days back particularly struck her just now with the fact that if they were going to have to face KARR several upgrades to both AIs would be needed and since time was of the essence and Sarah, Billy and Zoe had too much work on their hands with the search and KARR's core signal the only other option she had to work with was hoping some of her friends would help her make those upgrades herself and install them while the search was still going. Quickly changing her clothes and tying her long her into a messy bun she headed out to the main chamber where she caught Matt and Skyla right before they left the room

"Guys!" the two immediately stopped and turned to look at her, walking to meet her halfway around the large main desk "I need you two to get everyone to meet in the rec. room in five minutes"

"why what's going on?"

"I just realized something and I will really be needing all of your help on this one"

with a single nod the two split off in separate directions to go get the others out of their rooms to tell them about the sudden meting they were having now.

Minutes later the group was reunited and Kate was able to explain to them this new problem she had found as well as the idea of solving it themselves by taking on the AI's upgrades while the others worked on finding KIRA.

"Katie you do realize that taking on a project of that magnitude and complexity ourselves if a huge risk right?"

"come on Matt, I thought you would've loved to be able to work directly with the two, all of you, I know you want to do it"

Ryder took a step forward and looked at the driver with a serious expression "As much as I would love to do it, and I think I speak for all of us now, I really feel like placing the cars' well-being on our hands for this mission in particular would not be the best course of action; you have to think as well that your parent will never approve an upgrade made by all of us considering the relatively short amount of time we've spent here as well as our lack of experience with field work"

"leave me to deal with my parents and KIFT to check over the upgrades and see what they think when we're finished, please guys we have to do this if we want to give the two at least a fighting chance…I've seen how easily KARR can overpower KITT both in that one battle years ago and more recently in other missions, I saw it myself with KIRA a few days ago with how easily he was able to pin her just by placing a hand on her roof and hood. I'm going to start working on something to help them after this regardless if you guys decide to help me or not…this is something that needs to be done and I'm still going to help them with or without you guys"

After leaving the rec room Kate immediately headed to one of the smaller labs at the back of the building where she knew no one would be in or around it close enough to hear her work, she opened the door to the dark room and turned on the lights, three large tables occupied most of the room while cabinet's and other smaller stations with computers and equipment laid against the walls; the young driver took a deep breath as she looked around the room before turning around to close the door, stopping just as she was about to take the first step at the sight of her team standing at the doorway. "I thought you guys wanted to stay out of this one"

"we did" Matthew stepped in front of the others and closer to Kate "but then we realized that if we didn't do this ourselves, like you said, no one would do it; giving KITT and KIFT at least some help would be better than just leave them to their own devices. Plus if you were going to do it anyway might as well help"

a small smile grew on the black haired young woman's face for the first time in the past two days, giving Matt a quick hug and a low 'thank you' she urged everyone to get inside so she could close the door "okay then if you guys are going to help we need to be on the same page: the first thing we need to do is find a way to counterattack that mess of an outer layer that KARR has for paint, next we have to find a way to strengthen KITT and KIFT's hooks and cables since KARR was able to just snap the regular one when KIFT used it on him to get free, once we have that we need to find some new weapons that will be able to penetrate his shields"

"well to try and solve your first problem-" Matt started "-I think I might know what to do; if I remember correctly the metal flakes that had been infused in the two cars that you and KIRA faced a while ago were made out of Tungsten" Matt walked over to one of the computers and turned it on as he spoke, bringing up a few small files "tungsten is one of the strongest natural metals to this date but the problem with it is that when used in its natural state it can be very brittle, that was why some of their paint got stuck to both KIRA and KITT when they fought the red cars, it was literally breaking apart, the best solution I can come up with in the time that we might have is to upgrade the cars' Nano skin to have some magnetic pulse that can repel this metal flakes and protect the AI from receiving damage from them"

Connor then took a step forward with Sydney "to strengthen up the cables and hooks we can cover them with a new alloy made with the remaining tungsten flakes from the other cars and some chromium, this will make the cables have the strength of the first metal while the chromium enhances this strength and keeps the cable's flexibility as well as remove the brittle nature of tungsten to create incredibly strong hooks and cables"

"sounds like a good idea but where do you plan on getting both of those metals?"

"Sydney knows where they are storing the two cars from the attack, we can go sneak in now that everyone's busy and scrape some more metal with Noah's help; while searching for some components the other day I believe there were a few bars or chromium somewhere"

"why would there be chromium here?"

"It's used in small amounts for the alloys that make some of the AIs' engine components because of its high heat resistance"

before Kate could even speak again Ryder started talking "I think I know where we can find some ammo to penetrate his shields, Skyla has access to the weapons vault so we'll be taking care of that"

Kate smiled and took a step back to look at everyone "you guys really got this figured out pretty quick, okay you four go and get what you need and get back as soon as possible, be careful not to get spotted and I'll help Matt with the shield. Lets get to work"

as the young driver and tech worked on strengthening the cars' Nano skin in the short time that they had Kate had the idea of electrically charging whatever left over chromium Sydney had and pulverize it into a fine dust that they could mix with the clear covering of the Nano skin and spray it over the two cars as a passive protective layer; the addition of an electric shield with the same charge as the chromium particles will result in a temporal electric current that would protect the entire car and hopefully reduce the damage taken from each impact from KARR's new cover as well as reduce or completely eliminate the residual metal and paint scraps leftover from each impact.

The two worked around the clock that day and through the whole morning of the following day, eventually Matt started to notice Kate was starting to doze off every now and then while working. Getting up from where he was sitting preparing the clear covering he walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder "Kate you're falling asleep again, you should get some rest I can finish this up"

Slightly more alert she stood straight "I'm fine, I'll go take whatever chromium Sydney has and start filing it down with Noah there"

"you haven even had anything to eat since last night, at least go for something to eat"

"I had some chocolates that I snuck into my room the other day earlier, I'm fine for now, not even hungry"

"you know you can't be working yourself up like this constantly right?"

"it won't need to be constantly if we find KIRA; we've been all here trying to find her for the past three days and, not that I don't appreciate what they are doing, but KITT and KIFT's work on piecing back together that code is taking forever, have you seen how far that bar has moved since we started working?"

"no but-"

"Matt it's just about to be half way full in over three days"

"you have to understand that the two of them are working to the best of their abilities, don't go blame it on them for taking so long. I've walked through that room quite a few times since this all started and I've never seen them take their processors off that code, it's been a constant for them and you of all people should know that they want to find her as much as you do…"

"I know…it's just that…I don't know, I'm sorry I didn't mean to make it look like I was blaming it on them, I can't imagine what they must be feeling like right now...they're probably worried out of their minds after this long without a word from her and KITT…he knows first-hand better than anyone else what KARR can do after going through it himself before more than enough times. I just hope that this whole ordeal is over soon and that KIRA is okay…if anything ever happens to her…"

Matt was able to see out of the corner of his eye the single tear that rolled down the young driver's face as she continued to work on the computer while talking "you two really have something don't you?"

"she's the sister I never had…I know it may sound stupid to say the least, referring to an AI in a car but…I grew up with her, talking and playing with her over the years, I still remember those few nights when either my mom or my dad were out on a mission with KITT and KIFT that I had these horrible nightmares that would wake me up in the middle of the night, there was no one around and and at first my only solution was to just cover myself up with the bedsheets and curl into a ball to make the nightmares go away; one night in particular I remember hearing KIRA calling me through the small monitor next to the door, I didn't want to move at first since I was so scared…-"

-Flashback: Old SSC, 14 years ago-

7 year old Katie sat on her bed after being woken up abruptly by a nightmare, both her parents were gone and most likely no one was up at this hour, the shadows on the wall casted by the low blue nightlight next to her bed resembled the things she saw on her nightmares and the sounds of the old building's AC vents rattling every now and then sounded scary to her even now.

Scared to even move she took the blanked the was using and wrapped herself tightly into a ball in an attempt to keep the scary things away, she had small shivers every now and then as her heart banged in her chest with every breath in fear. Closing her eyes she begged for everything to go away in the relative silence for a few seconds before a familiar voice broke it…

"Katherine, are you okay?"

the child pulled back some of the blanket so she could peek out to find the voice, she looked out half expecting to somehow see the black and blue car that was her friend there and instead finding the room empty and dark with the exception of KIRA's dark turquoise and red voice modulator on the small monitor on the wall next to her door. The girl sat up slightly but kept the covers all around her while looking at the monitor and shaking her head

"is something wrong?"

"had a nightmare" came the low response from the child, her blue eyes never leaving the small screen across the room.

The AI knew about the nightmares, the girl didn't have them often but the few times that she did her parents had always been there, alerted by KITT or KIFT whenever it happened. The AI considered telling Billy or Zoe about it but the guy had little to no experience in this field and Zoe was an incredibly heavy sleeper so instead she opted to solve the current problem on her own

"If you like you can spend the rest of the night with me"

the girl eagerly nodded and cautiously untangled herself from the bedsheets, crawling to the edge of the bed she stopped at the sight of the dark edge under the bed

"bad things hide in the dark…" the shaky and low words left the child as she crawled back to her original spot with her back against the wall.

KIRA turned the light's in the room on in a lower setting, illuminating everything just enough to seem normal "would that help?"

With the shadows out of sight she climbed down from her bed and got out of the room, taking a smaller blanket that was folded over a chair by the door; in a minute she reached the large main room where the only remaining AI sat, opening her passenger's side door at the sight of the girl who in return turn her trot into a full run for the open door.

KIRA closed the door as soon as the child was safely inside, sealing her in a temporal bubble of safety from all the bad things outside. The Mustang set the AC to a comfortable temperature for the girl as she got settled in the warm leather seat "do you feel better now"

A nod was all the answer she got until she was completely settled and covered in the seat, the AI reclined it a bit more so that she could get more comfortable "thank you KIRA"

"what for?" she was slightly confused now

"you protect me from bad things in my room and let me sleep with you…you are a nice car"

feeling a warm surge of energy, she couldn't help the nice feeling the child's words had created on her "it was no problem at all, and thank you, Katie"

As the child drifted off to sleep inside the car KIRA herself found comfort in the warm weight that the little charge created on her seat, settling back to go into partial recharge until morning, she slightly sank on her tires as her scanner tracked sluggishly with a low glow, signaling her currently low state of awareness.

-End flashback, back to present time-

Matt sat next to Katie as she told him her story and he found it rather fascinating that an AI had been able to actually care for a child even with something as simple as it had been, he understood now a bit better just how far back the two went and how strong their bond was to this day, being separated like this was hard for Katie and he was able to see that but he couldn't say the same for the youngest of the three AIs; if what they speculated was correct then KARR had managed to somehow take over her which meant that either her core programing had been corrupted or who she actually was as an AI was probably long gone by now, using the little knowledge he had about KARR until now that was the most likely case scenario he was able to come up with but there still had to be more, he was all about revenge and while this could be his way of doing just that then why all the secrecy and mystery? Why not do it when he had the chance back at the woods? He clearly wanted to attract attention to himself and prolonging catching up to KIRA had been clearly on purpose…

Once the clear cover was ready to be mixed in with the chromium dust the two headed out to get the metal from Sydney and the others, when they arrived they saw that the three had already filed down most of the chromium and four hooks with their cables had already been covered in the tungsten-chromium alloy and were soaking in a cold saline solution that would help the covering set in faster without losing much of its strength or flexibility. Greeting everyone Matt and Katie told the others what their plan was going to be for the new protective shield as the two finished off filing the remaining metal to take back to the lab and prepare the mix, before they could leave Ryder and Skyla entered the secluded garage out of breath with two of the utility carts in tow

"and what in the world happened to you two?"

in between breaths Skyla was able to answer while Ryder regained his breath lying on the floor half laughing "Kate you have no idea. We got the modified ammo but we had to sneak past half the complex to get here pushing this carts which, full of weapons, are way heavier than they look, we had to take the utility ramp as well since the elevators all have cameras on them"

"well at least you made it back unnoticed. What did you two manage to pick up?"

standing up with a smile on his face Ryder took the cover of both carts revealing one containing multiple missiles of various sizes and the other with boxes full of different types of bullets "this, ladies and gentlemen, is the best of the best armor-piercing, heavy duty, hi-tech short range weapons you will ever see around here" Ryder pulled the one cart with the missiles and started explaining what each of the different types did, starting with a relatively small dark gray and blue missile "this little guy is the new HEAT or High-Explosive Anti-Tank missile developed by your local FLAG weapon specialists, this little guy can do twice as much damage as the bigger versions used on actual tanks today at half the size it's perfect to fit in the single launcher located under the right side mirror" he handed the missile to Matt then, who reluctantly took it with extreme caution and a terrified look on his face "next up we have quite the lot of modified javelin missiles" taking a longer white and red missile he started explaining once more "this modified Javelin packs the same explosive charge as the regular Javelin, the only difference is that this one has slightly more advanced homing mechanism able to lock on the target as well as explode on command rather than just on contact if need be"

as Ryder took the explosive from Matt and placed both back in place Skyla started introducing the different bullets she had acquired… "ok now that he's over gushing over those things here we have some modified rounds specially designed to fit on the cars' guns" she took a long gold colored bullet with a red tip" most of the boxes here have loads of this specific type, specially designed armor piercing and anti-tank incendiary bullets" she threw one to Kate, who caught it immediately bouncing it over a few times as she tried to catch it after being thrown to her so suddenly, safely in her hand she look over the small thing with studying eyes.

"this thing is heavy, I've never seen anything like this"

"specially designed, now here I also got a few boxes of this other guy here" she took a smaller, rounder iron color bullet "now you may notice that this has a bigger circumference than most regular bullets, that's because this is a modified, more dangerous version of your day to day explosive rounds. Shoot a few of this into a wooden crate and it will most likely end up in wood shards on the floor; they may not get to penetrate KARR's outer skin but if you weaken that and bring down his shields these will really do some damage in less protected areas"

as everyone gathered around the carts to have a better look at the guns Kate noticed that on the bottom of the one holding all the bullets was a long box that called her attention, it was far too big to contain any kind of bullet and the thing had no markings or names on it "Skyla?"

"Yeah?"

"what's in that box?"

"what?" the security and defense agent moved a few of the boxes on top to try and see what the larger box was about, pulling it out of the bottom of the cart and placing it on an empty nearby table "well I certainly didn't notice that was there when I threw everything in here" carefully she opened it as the others crowded around her and Katherine; inside it was a black plastic case with no markings or labels they could recognize "Kate…I don't think this was supposed to be with all the other guns or ammo…"

"yeah me neither…"

Skyla took a step back as Kate unlocked the case to reveal a long matte black missile with a bright yellow cap; the thing had four yellow fins on the back and a single thin yellow line on the top that went all the way from the bottom of the cap until it merged with one of the fins at the back "what even is this thing? I've never seen anything like it before, what's up with all that bright yellow?…"

Connor kneeled down to take a closer look at the weapon as everyone stood back, being careful he took the missile out of its casing and held it out with both hands to examine it and now that he had it out completely and he was able to get a good look he noticed some black electrical tape covering something near the yellow tip of the missile, carefully setting the weapon on the desk he peeled off the tape to reveal the inscription "Knight Industries" in bold yellow letters that matched the same yellow on the rest of the missile.

Kate took a few steps back as she remembered the files she had read on that one mission that involved some Knight industries missiles and how hard they were on KITT's shields at the time, if this was anywhere near the firepower of those ones they had some serious weaponry right in front of them.

"Connor you are kind of a weapon specialist right?"

"I took a course on that yeah, why?"

"could you investigate how strong this thing is and see if you can figure anything about it, just in general?"

"sure, I'll get on it right away"

the guy immediately left the room while the others discussed or a few minutes what to do with their accidental discovery, in the end they opted to let KITT take it in case they could use it against KARR if a chance showed itself, after all, if the thing was actually one of those long forgotten missiles then if it was used on KARR it should give the AIs some sort of advantage over him.

Matt and Kate returned to the lab after their reunion to finish the mixture with the fine chromium dust since they needed to wait at least an hour for the clear cover to fuse in correctly with the metal if their plan was going to work as expected, just before they hit the half an hour mark the loud sirens of the complex blared loudly as red lights flashed in the hallways, sharing a knowing look the two ran straight to the main room where the two AIs sat in their place, scanners tracking faster than before and with a much more intense glow.

Katherine ran straight for KIFT, stopping by almost crashing on the AI's side "KIFT what is going on why are all the alarms going crazy"

"KITT just received an encoded message with an address and instructions from KARR, he's giving us his exact location and a specific time limit to get to him"

"where are my parents KIFT, do they know about this?"

"KITT is relaying to them the exact words of the message as we speak, they will figure out our best course of action since one of the instructions was for KITT to go alone"

the gimbal where the black Mustang was stationed started turning as panels shifted and merged on the midnight Mustang as he engaged his attack mode and fired up his engine, ready to leave. Kate immediately ran in front of the large double doors to stop the AI from just leaving, making the car stop rather abruptly mid-launch

"Katherine please step aside"

"KITT wait, you can't just go out like that, you have no chance against KARR like this you saw that he's upgrades himself vastly"

"I have no choice, there is no time to come up with new upgrades and-"

"we already have new upgrades!" the AI remained silent as Katherine's friends all entered the room in a hurry "we've been working on a few things to give you two a better fighting chance and I know that this is usually a decision that my parents make since it regards the two of you directly but with the time we have there is no time to waste and you will be able to leave in under an hour"

KITT seemed to ponder this for a bit as his scanner tracked back and forth in a hurry, considering his options and thinking about just how right or wrong Kate could be…as it turns out, she was more in the right than he wanted to admit "okay...bring all the equipment you need, I'll call some of the other techs to help you with whatever you need"

With a nod Kate hurried everyone to get the new grappling hooks and ammo while Matt went to check on the mix, hoping that it had fused well enough to create the desired effect, there was no more time so whatever the state it was in they would need to use it, once everyone had ran off Kate turned to the midnight black Mustang again "we'll work on you first since KARR is asking specifically for your presence so you can go and we can apply the upgrades in KIFT, we came up with this new cover that will fuse with your Nano-skin to create a permanent passive hardened shell as well as work as the skeleton for an electric shield that will most likely deflect most of the damage created on impact by that new paint mixture the cars we saw a while back were using since KARR is most likely working with the same thing"

"how did you manage to make something like that on your own?"

"Matt helped, he had the idea and I just helped making it a reality, we've been working on it for the past days but I'm afraid it's still not completely ready, it'll have to do though because there is no more time to let it set"

"don't worry Katherine, the fact that you had the idea of making something like that considering KARR's upgrades is appreciated"

"you'll have to stay in your attack mode once we start spraying the mixture since it's not refined or anything and if we do it on your normal mode it won't work once you transform -"

Kate explained then to both AIs in detail what the weapons and upgrades were as people flooded the place and started to work, half an hour later the new cover had been sprayed on by multiple people to speed up the process and the modified ammo was being loaded, Kate got a slight bit worried when Connor didn't show up with information about the mysterious missile but once the young driver explained what she thought about it to KITT the Mustang agreed to take it despite his systems practically shouting at him not to after discovering that he was unable to scan the thing.

While loading the last of the remaining ammo Kate climbed inside the midnight black car before KITT had any time to protest, closing the door behind her and taking a hold of the wheel "look KITT I am going with you no matter what, I am KIRA's driver and friend so I need to do this as well and there is nothing you can do or say to change my mind"

the black haired young woman stared at the blue and red voice modulator waiting for the argument against her that was sure to come while preparing a possible comeback that could hopefully beat whatever KITT had to say

"okay"

wait what? "what? No argument or excuse or talk about your preservation of human life thing or responsibility?"

"I will give you a few reason why I decided not to argue with you at the present time: first of all you are KIRA's driver and that alone gives you some hierarchy in things concerning her that I can't intervene with, second thing is that you also are the daughter of Michael Knight, this alone means that I would probably not have the time to try and convince you to not go since you are both equally defiant and stubborn, to finish I can only say that whatever state KIRA is on right now I will most likely require some human help to get her back and you would be the obvious choice for more than one reason"

"well despite being unexpected I think I prefer it this way" the gimbal started to turn now as the last of the ammo was stored in its respective compartment and all the techs stood clear to allow the AI to exit and continue to work on KIFT before they could let her go "come on KITT, let's get her back and finish KARR off, for good this time"

The Mustang's engine flared to life with a loud growl that made the glass panels on the catwalk above rattle with the strong vibrations, the whirling sound of the turbo chargers building up over the rumble of the powerful engine was all the warning anyone got before the car disappeared, leaving nothing but two black marks on the floor where the tires first fought to bring the AI's full power to the ground


	7. 7 Eye of the Storm

**Chapter 7**

 **The eye of the storm**

Just over an hour after Kate left the complex with KITT the white and blue Mustang was loaded up and ready, already heading out to follow his trace, the young techs that consisted of Katie's group of friends stood on the main front screen watching live feed from both cars, KITT had left just within the timeframe to get to the location given on time with KIFT lagging an hour behind him, the live feeds from both cars presented a dark road only illuminated by the cars' headlights and showing the corners of the rapidly passing road signs; everyone exchanged worried looks and possible scenarios about where exactly was KARR hiding and what would the AIs find when they arrived.

Now that it was close to two hours since KITT had left the sound of an elevator opening broke the relative silence and low voices as everyone look away from the screen and to the elevator to see Michael and Sarah with the rest of the team they had taken to do some recon and investigation earlier that same day. The lead tech, Sarah, made her way through the people in the room to get to the main screen, stopping only when she realized that neither of the two AIs were there anymore

"Mike I thought you said you had spoken to KITT about what you two were going to do"

the ex-army ranger made his way through the people and looked at Sarah in confusion, he spoke again and slowly stopped as he noticed the cars' absence "I did talk to him, I even told you what...-" he noticed the empty room just then "-we were going to do…"

"well apparently not because he's now gone, with KIFT!"

Mike looked around the room and the people in it before turning to Connor close to his right "Get me a chat line to KITT, now"

"He's shut off all external incoming transmissions, we only have his live feed"

as Sarah typed on her computer on the main desk and Mike questioned some of the techs around to see what exactly had happened the brown haired scientist saw out of the corner of her eye the group of techs her daughter hung around with, making a double take she noticed that Kate was not only missing from the group but also that her phone sat innocently on the edge of the desk around where they stood; a bad feeling settled in the pit of her stomach as she slowly stood straight and addressed the group "Where's Kate…?"

the silence and some of the guilty glances some of them shared confirmed her suspicion, calling for Mike from across the room in that very instant her own expression paled considerably.

"Michael!"

Mike turned around immediately at the panic in the woman's voice, trotting across the room to get to her "Kate went out with KITT to get KARR!"

Katherine sat inside the Mustang as the AI drove itself to the given address, KITT had found it particularly interesting the very moment he mapped the coordinates KARR had sent him, his current location was the same place where the old SSC currently stood; whatever had made KARR choose that particular place to stay he did not care, what he did care about, however, was knowing KIRA's condition, he knew that she was there with him simply because there was no other way and he knew KARR well enough by now to know that he would be planning on using her in some way to get to him…and it had worked

For the first time in the past three days it actually seemed like time was moving slower than usual, every time she had a glance at the digital clock on the top corner of the windshield after whatever period of time she felt like what she thought felt like ages to her in reality were just a few minutes; for a second she thought about telling KITT to drive faster since the wait was slowly killing her on the inside but a look at the bright red speedometer on the lower left corner of the windshield confirmed that the AI was driving near top speed territory, only stopped from going faster by the bumps and cracks on the road; the needle on the analog speedometer in the dash continued to shake trying to go past the top speed mark every now and then and this little detail did not go unnoticed by the anxious passenger.

Being a precise and calculating AI every single move and action was perfectly executed thanks to the lightning fast calculations made by the computer, Kate knew this and it was one of the reasons the shaking of that needle meant so much more than anyone would ever imagine. KITT was pushing himself to try and go faster than he was physically designed to whenever the conditions of the road allowed and to some degree this really showed Katie just how truly worried and anxious he was; KIFT had called a little while ago saying that Sarah had gotten in contact with her and was asking why KITT had left, since nothing was said about the missing driver she just assumed she hadn't realized yet that she was gone, she already knew that if KARR didn't kill her in the span of the next few hours then her parents would as soon as this mess got to an end, KIFT had mentioned that Mike had been really upset about the fact that apparently KITT had lied to him saying that he would be waiting for them to arrive instead of leaving the moment the call ended but she supposed that if he told Mike that he was going to be leaving on the spot he would've probably argue against him and make him wait.

Her current train of thought kept her busy enough until eventually she noticed they were no longer driving on the main road, the two entered an empty single-lane road where only a lone building could be seen on the distance; it took her preoccupied mind more than she'd like to admit but the moment she noticed where they were her her mind kicked into overdrive : they were back at the old base, the SSC…and KIRA was somewhere in there.

As soon as KITT entered the base's perimeter the AI activated his own cloaking shields to prevent KARR from detecting his presence while he dropped Kate near the rear entrance just far enough to remain unseen

"KITT I told you I was going to be going with you, I'm not staying here while you just go out there to face who knows what, we don't know what help KARR might have in there"

the Mustang internally sighed as he looked at the young driver "I agreed to you coming, now I need you to listen and understand that KARR is dangerous, more than you can even imagine, I still have to keep you safe so if you really want to help then go out the side entrance to the rear area of the hangar and try and remain unnoticed while you look for KIRA. there is a strong shield blocking all outgoing and incoming transmissions so we will lose all contact from each other until our people back at base figure a way to bypass or deactivate it. You will be more helpful back here than in my interior as soon as I enter KARR's sensors"

rather reluctantly Kate agreed to follow KITT's orders, she knew that everything he had said was right but it still didn't make her feel any better as she watched him take off once more towards the partially open main double doors to the large hangar. the moon was starting to fall back down into the horizon and the sky was now a lighter shade of dark blue. She walked around the side of the building until she found the door KITT had told her about and sighed in relief to see that is was open; hoping to use stealth as her advantage she snuck in closing the door silently and after a few minutes of searching around the back end of the building her heart stopped at the ear wrenching sound of metal clashing against metal alongside the rumble of an all too familiar engine, KITT had found KARR, and he was not happy…

the midnight black Mustang slowly drove into the hangar through the small space left open between the main double doors, the brightly lit interior gave him a clear view of the near mirror image of his normal mode that was the Knight Automated Roving Robot sitting at the back of the large open space, scanner calmly tracking back and forth with its characteristic bright amber yellow; there was no sight of KIRA anywhere that he could see and the shield was preventing him from using anything other than his short range scanners or other devices to properly search around. for the longest time the only sound in the vast enclosed space was the menacing rumble that was KITT's engine until finally the booming voice of the opposing AI shattered the early morning silence.

"We meet again, brother…"

"unfortunately…where's KIRA?"

The matte black car started his engine as he slowly made his way over to the modified Mustang that was KITT, the modified covering on the elder AI's shell casting an almost completely flat shade of black that nearly removed whatever little shine the once matte finish provided "Patience now, little brother, you want her back?"

A loud growl from KITT made KARR break to a complete stop almost instantly, now he sat still in the middle of the large empty room "I did not come here to play any games KARR-" he revved his engine once more loud enough to make the windows on the top of the tall walls vibrate against the strength of his engine "You don't want to do this, you know exactly how this is going to end, just like every other time before…"

The tone of the corrupted AI's engine shifted considerably then from a deep growl to a low rumbling as he slowly backed up a small bit "Oh but I do, I've been waiting for this moment long enough, planning this game and though over every detail enough times already" he revved his engine once "you want her? You're going to have to get through me first"

Well, if KARR wanted a fight then he was going to get a fight, the best one yet for sure. KITT peeled off from his place with an angry roar of his high-powered engine as KARR did the same not even a second later just for the two to meet in the middle of the hangar with an ear-wrenching clash of metal against metal, they pushed against each other in a reverse tug of war engulfed on white smoke and a shower of bright sparks caused by KITT's improved passive electric shield on contact with KARR's modified protective cover; both cars' bumper were starting to flex under the strength of the impact and the pushing as they stared each other down with fury, their scanners literally inches apart and tracking furiously back and forth until finally KITT jumped sideways using his turbo boost while KARR shot past him, stopping and turning around with a perfectly executed drift just in time to face KITT once more.

Almost simultaneously the two cars launched towards each other once more and clashed before separating, repeating the process a few more times until after a slip KITT managed to catch KARR off guard for just a second, enough time to shoot one of his missiles at him on the side and send him sliding across the room; after the smoke cleared out of the area where the missile's direct impact had landed on KARR's side a portion of his protective cover remained smoking and charred, alas it would look like the thing wasn't perfect whatsoever. The amber yellow scanner of the elder AI flashed brightly in anger as he finally unfolded himself and stood on his full stature, roaring his engine in challenge at the Mustang in front of him, KITT backed up a small bit as KARR transformed and immediately shot backwards when the robot tried to reach down for him with one of his claws just barely missing him.

KARR drove after the Mustang and trying to get a hold of him but even driving in reverse KITT was nimble enough to just barely avoid getting caught, eventually they were getting close to the wall and in an attempt to veer to a side something on the floor caused him to lose control mid-turn and slam against the wall, the robot took this opportunity and held the Mustang down by the roof with one of his claws while the other one folded back and transformed into some sort of laser canon. There really weren't many things that scared KITT, only two things could cause his systems to freeze, one he was currently carrying himself without even knowing it and the other had him pinned down but he still powered through to get over the second one; reversing or driving forward didn't help and the strength KARR was applying over him was sure to contrast whatever force he could muster with his turbo boost so as the cannon started to heat up pointed directly at him and his options started to run out he could feel the creeping feeling of fear on the back of his processor for what seemed like an eternity of nothing but the sound of that cannon until gunshots broke the tension…'Katherine?'

It had taken her mind just a second to put the pieces together just as she kicked into overdrive and started to look around the boxes near her for any sort of gun, KIRA was nowhere to be found so she supposed that KARR was indeed hiding her somewhere and the only way to get to her would be defeating him first and she had no plans of hiding back here while KITT was fighting against KARR.

Eventually she came across a few guns inside one of the smaller boxes alongside some specialized ammo not too different from the one KITT was carrying for his guns, this would surely do at least some damage if shot in the right place so without a second thought she loaded the gun and followed the sound of squealing tires and angry engines until around the corner of a secondary smaller building inside the hangar she saw the two cars staring each other down before rushing and smashing each other on a head-on collision, taking their distraction with one another Kate moved around the front of the sealed entrance to the underground and used the scattered boxes for cover; as she moved around she noticed that after one of their clashes KARR had lost his grip turning around, almost immediately she heard the characteristic sound of the air being sliced by a missile that made contact straight in KARR's driver's door, pushing him off track and sending him sliding until he managed to stop his momentum amidst the smoke from the explosion. After the smoke had cleared out there was just barely any time for Kate to even process what had happened before KARR unfolded himself back to his full stature, the young woman froze as flashbacks from his attack on her and KIRA became fresh in her mind until Just a few seconds after the large robot shot forwards towards KITT as he reversed to try and get away from him, Kate snapped out of her shock just then and quickly set herself to work, gun in hand she ran behind crates to get closer to where KARR had now managed to pin KITT against a wall as he unfolder his hand canon.

For a split second she remembered when her mother had told her years ago that no system was perfect and that there were always weak points someway somehow, doing a quick scan of the tall figure she spotted an exposed area under KARR's arm where the front and back armor plating met, just barely she saw large cables running under said plating through that one unprotected area so just as his laser was about to shoot she aimed her gun and let a few rounds go, making contact perfectly with her target and letting an audible hiss as the pressurized coolant that ran through said area was spewed over the floor, causing the AI to jerk his cannon away from KITT in surprise just as it went off and created a perfect circular hole in the wall just above the Mustang.

KITT just instinctively shrunk lower to the ground as the canon went off and hit the wall just a few inches away from him, turning his attention back to what had happened he spotted the young driver aiming a gun at KARR some distance away while KARR himself was starting to straighten himself and turn towards Kate after being startled by the impact. Only the sound of the pressurized coolant dripping onto the floor echoed until slowly at first KARR started to move towards Kate just as she realized the danger she had just gotten herself into...

KITT took off after KARR in an attempt to get him away from Kate, just as he was about to reach the boxes she was using for cover he drove slightly ahead of the robot and with a hard drift he knocked him to the side, making him lose his balance and crash down to the ground into some of the larger boxes to the side. KITT skidded to a halt in front of the young driver as she remained frozen in place, this time looking at the Mustang with the same terrified expression.

"Kate, run behind the building and take cover, use the hidden entrance and get down to the base level so that you can find a way to deactivate the shield from inside. now"

even with the alarming edge in the tone of his voice there was no reaction whatsoever from Kate until she snapped out of her shock when suddenly KARR sent KITT across the room in a sudden burst of sparks with a strong blow from one of his claws; before she could even start to run the corrupted AI held her firmly and rose her up to be at eye level with him.

The amber yellow scanner flashed as he now identified the young woman in her grasp "well…but if it isn't the young AI's driver, I had warned KITT to come alone but I suppose that it might be for the better that you're here"

As panic started to fill her mind Kate struggled against the robot's grip, pushing away and hopelessly trying to pry herself free through the pain of clawing at the metal protected by that mixture of metals that to the touch felt like some sort of sandpaper on steroids…at least that was the best way she could think of at the moment to describe it.

As KITT managed to straighten himself up after the impact he took the chance given by KARR being distracted yet again to shoot one of the smaller, stronger rockets he had to make him drop Katherine and hopefully distract him enough for her to get out of sight

Upon impact with the missile KARR let go of Katherine and she landed on top of a cluster of cardboard boxes, just as KITT had hoped, softening her landing just enough to prevent any strong injuries to happen to her; Kate climbed down from the crushed boxes and fell on her knees panting to recover the breath she didn't realize she had been holding

"Katherine!" the driver looked over to the Mustang that stood some distance away from her "Run!"

groaning metal caused her to look behind her to where KARR was untangling himself from the pipework he had landed on, the rush of adrenaline in her body finally kicked in and she shot to her feet and broke into a mad sprint for the partially open hangar doors. KITT stood looking as Kate ran off before turning to look at the other AI, the robot was completely tangled in bent and broken pipework that was against the wall and he was still having trouble freeing himself; his hand cannon was stuck between two large metal beams that had broken off while a pipe somehow managed to half wrap against the upper part of his arm and both his legs were tangled in multiple broken and bent pipes so it really looked like he was truly going nowhere.

KITT drove towards him as he struggled to free his arm, stopping directly in front of him and bringing the modified Knight Industries missile up from his hood and ready to fire "I'm going to ask only once more…where is KIRA?" the robot's amber scanner dimmed in its intensity slightly just long enough for KITT to notice before looking to a side; taking it as a negative he got ready to shoot the missile until suddenly he spotted out of the corner of his vision a black blur that came with a strong impact on his side that sent him sliding towards the closest wall, the new passive shield taking on most of the impact as it remained sparking for a few seconds where he had been rammed, once he was able to clearly see what had happened his engine nearly stalled at the sight of the familiar black and blue Mustang standing where he had been standing before, the usually bright scarlet red scanner the young AI possessed had now morphed into a darker shade of red that flickered every now and then as it tracked in a rushed, uneven manner above the car's grille in a way that mirrored the internal conflict that was happening in the car's CPU

KARR noticed the slight increase on the speed at which his twin's scanner moved, indicating that most likely, combined by the fact that KITT remained frozen in place, he had gotten the reaction he had hoped for…he had the upper hand now for once and this time he would make sure that it stayed that way.

"KIRA?..." KITT called out in hopes of receiving some sort of reaction, the only response from her was just another flicker from the jumbled mess of lights that was her scanner. Again he turned his attention to KARR, the oldest AI stood tall some distance behind KIRA as he managed to untangle himself from the mess he had fallen in; the tone of the black Mustang's engine had a split second switch as the AI bolted forwards towards the robot while the strong vibrations of the enraged engine rattled the old windows on the top of the tall walls.

As KITT ran the distance between him and KARR in mere seconds KIRA darted forwards placing herself between KARR and himself, forcing KITT to hit hard on the breaks, stopping at just mere inches from the black and blue Mustang.

KARR drove slowly forwards until he was almost on top of KIRA, speaking as he looked down at KITT "Hi-tech virus of my own creation, it adapts to the host and uses its core signal to hide and remain undetected, only downside is that it has to be physically transmitted but luckily enough she provided the perfect opportunity a few days ago when she fell right into my trap…

With newfound anger KITT backed up away from KIRA until he had a clear shot at KARR as he deployed a full round of the armor piercing incendiary bullets on the robot while trying to avoid being hit by the younger AI as well as accidentally shooting her since these stronger bullets would more than likely be able to knock down the Nano-skin after a few hits considering that it might even be on a weakened state. Realizing that these new bullets did make a strong impact on him KARR folded back down into the Mustang and growled his engine in challenge while deploying one of his missiles, KITT saw the launcher pop out and immediately folded his own gun back into its compartment as he fishtailed to just narrowly avoid being hit yet the shockwave of the explosion managed to push him further away than he had calculated and caused him to be slightly disorientated for a fraction of a second.

Rapidly moving towards KITT as he spun around the oldest AI slid behind him and shot his grappling hook to his rear spoiler, fully aware that there was no latch point if he shot it underneath his rear bumper, following his orders mentally KIRA copied his maneuver in the front, succeeding in latching on to the bottom of his front bumper; just the second that took KITT to realize what had happened as he finally stopped the other two AIs had managed to get a hold of him by locking their wheels as both cables went taught, leaving no room to maneuver and no way to unlatch himself from them.

As KITT struggled and pulled to get away from both cars' hold KARR spoke again "that tiny virus I told you about was just the beginning, after some expert manipulation I was able to get her to come here willingly, it wasn't until she arrived that with a group of techs that have now been dismissed that I was able to insert a stronger virus directly into her core, the effect was nearly instantaneous…she is now under my full and absolute control. I say, she obeys…"

Fueled by the growing anger and frustration KITT turned to try and use the electric shield Katherine had told him about to make at least one of the two give him some slack to be able to boost out of the hooks' grip. On command hot waves of bright blue electricity rippled through the car with sparks and long bolts, the energy immediately went to the metal cables and into the AIs holding him with enough strength to make KARR snap the line before more of the high current rippled through him again.

Jumping to one side with the turbo boost was enough to get the hook KIRA had completely loose, seeing that KARR was still recovering from the electric surge KITT kept the electric shield up as he backed up into the older AI, ramming him against a wall and keeping him pinned as the current flowed from one car to the other. Entranced with trying to keep KARR from escaping his grip the midnight black Mustang completely missed KIRA ramming him once more as if the electric shield wasn't even there; transforming back into his robot form KARR took advantage of the inertia that his twin already had thanks to the previous blow to bring down one of his hands and swiped him hard enough to send him tumbling across the hangar, KITT couldn't help but flinch on impact at the harsh feel of sharp metal swiping his side, it was here that the AI realized with some horror that the single hit KARR landed had caused much more damage than it should have, a second later after a quick scan he realized that KARR did not have the raw tungsten cover the other two cars had, he had upgraded himself to be completely recovered by an alloy between tungsten and carbon, Tungsten carbide, the end result was something that could be compared to a shark's skin on steroids to the touch; KARR's new skin was strong enough to break through the newly applied Chromium shield and down further enough to almost directly penetrate his actual Nano skin.

Relishing in his twin's confusion KARR rattled some of his panels to get the feel of the electric current out of his system as he stood straight and spoke "Do you still not realize brother? If you really want to get this over with and fight ME you will have to get through her first…" at the end of the sentence KARR ordered the black and blue Mustang to charge again, this time she darted forwards at full speed to ram KITT head on, the latter taking on the full blow of the impact in his distracted state. KITT tried everything he could think of to push KIRA off of him without hurting her but knowing that in the end he was still fighting against the same AI he had personally trained years ago kept him at bay, he couldn't do it, if there was something that he knew KARR had right was that sometimes certain feelings could get in the way and in the end he was still a 'compassionate fool' as he had called him on multiple occasions in the past.

While KITT struggled to come up with something to buy time away from KIRA and get a good shot at KARR he kept getting himself stuck in the same spot in a head to head collision with KIRA, their scanners stood mere inches apart as both his and her front bumper flexed under the pressure but still held their shape thanks to the Nano-skin both had, the seemingly long few seconds that the move lasted KITT couldn't help but loathe what this virus had done to KIRA; the sheer sound of her engine was off, it didn't had her characteristic sound that was only slightly different than KIFT's and his own sound…now it was a deep hollow growl that just resembled the sound of a regular car more than anything and It was a hard thing to witness, it was even harder to face it this close and in the specific situation they were in to the point that KITT himself started hoping that this was somehow just some malfunction he was having or a 'dream' like those he he had seen his friends and family have, a nightmare even, but in the end he had no such luck…he was face to face with KIRA…yet he wasn't, he had found her…yet he hadn't

Even a small part on the back of his processor kept wandering if there was anything left of KIRA to fight for, maybe this was all just for a lost cause and he hadn't realized yet…maybe he did realize but just didn't want to believe it. One thing was for sure, if there was any chance at knowing if he was right or wrong he would need Katherine's help, and fast

While this took place KARR sat folded back down looking at the unfolding scene before him, he could see KITT was trying to avoid any real contact with the younger AI but it was hard due to the surprising agility and speed the black and blue Mustang had, she always ended hitting KITT either on the back or in his middle section but his shields still held and each hit was adorned by a shower of sparks. His plan so far was simple, let her overwork his shields and bring them down to the point where KITT himself would start losing some agility and then deliver the last couple blows himself; this was going to be his night, it had to be, after so long this just had to be the night where he finally beat his brother…

After running out when KITT managed to knock KARR out she managed to calm herself and went over to try and find another way in, by the time she managed to find a way to get back in, thanks mostly to the constant sound of carnage going on, she got to a room where she was able to break the lock and open the door out into the large open space. Confusion was quickly evident in her eyes at the unfolding scene: from her angle she saw two black cars tumbling about in a cloud of white smoke in the area while another one sat motionless to one side with its rear end facing her, putting two and two together she quickly guessed the two fighting were KITT and KARR so quietly and guided only by the sound of the two engines she hopped from one cover to the next, not risking another look in case she was spotted again.

After a few more minutes she reached the stacks of boxes that were immediately behind the car she believed was KIRA, with some luck she could just run in and pull the door open without being seen so that she could work without much pressure on fixing her.

After a short countdown when the cars' engines sounded like they were a small bit further away she jumped from her spot and ran for the driver's door, something in her couldn't believe that it had been that easy to get to KIRA, as she went to grab the door handle her feeling of happiness was instantly replaced with fear and pain when the second she tried to pull the door handle a strong electric current sparked from the car. Yelping at the unexpected pain she jumped back and fell to the ground clutching her hand and hissing in pain until the sound of shifting metal called her attention; right in front of her the metallic beast that was KARR unfolded before her and turned to look down to where she was.

For a second she remained lost in her world until she realized that there were no more sounds coming from the other two cars, slowly she turned her head to see that the two cars had stopped moving and were both facing in her direction; a cold shiver ran down her spine when she realized with some horror that the other black car that was with KITT had double blue stripes, a characteristic of the younger AI, fear took over her as she was able to only state the obvious while her gaze remained fixed on the robot.

In a barely audible voice that was more to herself than anyone else she spoke the only thing that came to her mind "You're not KIRA…" clutching her hand with wide eyes Katherine stared up at the robot until KITT's voice broke her daze

"Katherine run, now!"

as if someone had kicked her into action the blue eyed woman bolted off towards the exit of the hangar, KARR remained too distracted trying to process what had just happened to give KIRA orders which gave KITT a second to really cause some damage in KARR; Shooting two of the javelins and switching launchers to set off one of the HEAT missiles in record time as KARR received the full blow of the firearms at point blank range; the tall robot was knocked to the ground by the impact, getting several systems damaged or just completely taken out by the high-end missiles that penetrated past his own permanent shields.

Furious that he had been damaged this much because of the stupid human's distractions KARR opted to send KIRA after the woman while he dealt with KITT himself. Following her immediate orders KIRA turned around to drive away from KITT and sped towards the running woman, KITT called for her but before he could take off and follow her KARR jumped over to where he was and firmly held him down with one of his clawed hands.

Kate called for KIRA, she glanced behind her in desperation as the car grew steadily closer by the second in the hopes that somehow she would see who she was, her hopes vanished quickly though when she saw the flickering dark colored scanner getting closer. A small part of her started to do the countdown of how many seconds were left for her before she turned into a pancake but screeching tires right behind her were the only warning she got of the new arrival as she jumped to a side in an attempt to avoid her impending doom.

KIFT could hardly believe that she was back at the old SSC, KARR had chosen to settle down here of all places for reasons that she did want to even try and figure out right now, as she continued to head towards the open hangar the AI caught a glimpse of Katherine running out the partially open double doors with KIRA closing in on her fast; making a split second decision KIFT pressed down hard on the accelerator to get between car and driver, using her grappling hook to keep herself from being pushed on impact she shot it towards one of the structural supports on the outside wall just as she screeched to a sudden stop right behind Katie, releasing an EMP that instantly knocked out the young AI and sent her sliding to a side as her wheels locked in place.

The AI turned to face the terrified driver that was just gaining her footing again "are you okay?"

"I'm fine…I think at least, thanks KIFT" the banging of metal and gunshots made both turn to the fight that had once again broken between the other two AIs inside the hangar "you need to help him KIFT, go"

"I will, the EMP I used should keep KIRA deactivated for at least a few more minutes so whatever you need to do you have to hurry"

with a nod from Kate KIFT took off towards the fight while Kate went over to KIRA. Closing the door as she sat inside the car Kate placed her open palm over the center of the steering wheel, a light blue touchpad appeared on her side window to enter her password, a difficult task when you only get one chance and the keyboard is glitching out; her code happened to be correct and a set of files were displayed on the windshield now, she needed to find a very specific file that would reset the AI's core to its last backup, reading through the display an explosion rang out across the hangar as the car's engine came came back to life

"oh shit…"

KITT was starting to run out of ideas and to make matters worse, not only was his shield starting to reach an alarmingly low capacity, thanks mostly to the constant physical hits he was receiving, but KARR had decided to fully unleash everything that he had on him the second after he sent KIRA after Katherine; KARR, unlike KIRA, possessed a dangerous arsenal of weapons and upgrades that he probably had no idea existed and that alone made things all the worst for him. A well placed impact from a missile sent him flying into one of the near walls to crash down, the moment his full weight came crashing down on his four tires the lack of energy he'd been dragging for the past few days started to catch up and now it prevented him from having a good enough reaction time to deal with KARR.

The robot pressed down with one of his clawed hands on the Mustang's dented and scratched hood, each swipe KARR landed after the first few that the shield took on had left considerable marks of scratched paint that, in contrast with the corrupted AI's dark gray look, the remains of some of KITT's paint on the robot's claws shone bright with the lights of the hangar; bending down slightly so that the two could be at a relative 'eye to eye' KARR spoke once more.

"You have lost, KITT, and to think that after all this time the only thing I really needed were some better upgrades and some 'borrowed' help"

the battered Mustang kept his silence as the lightly cracked scanner kept glowing with an intense red, pacing at a hurried pace that betrayed his calm appearance, the one hand KARR had free then flipped and morphed to reveal a complex laser that immediately started charging as it emanated a golden glow. The stare down lasted just a few seconds until another voice interrupted KARR

"KITT!"

the midnight black Mustang regretted not not telling KIFT to stay back at the base, he knew she wanted to come but the situation he found himself in had always been a possibility going around his processor "KIFT!, get back to base, help Katherine and go back with KIRA"

before the metallic white Mustang had a chance to answer KARR straightened himself up and let go of KITT "let her stay, KITT" KARR started now looking at KIFT "she arrived just in time to see the fireworks"

For a second her processor froze in the image she was seeing, yet instead of doing nothing she managed to kick her systems back into gear and speed towards the distracted KARR. KIFT pulled into a full strength skid at a high speed to hit one of KARR's 'legs' knocking him down instantly, KITT took the opportunity to move forwards and get out of the corner he had landed on, immediately pulling right next to KIFT

"KIFT you have to go warn the others, send a message out to the base to send backup immediately, just get out of here while you are still able to

"I came to help you and that is just what I will be doing, I am not leaving you alone here with him"

"please understand what I am asking of you, go back I can handle this on my own!"

"Clearly, judging by how KARR had you pined down…"

"Is not safe for you to be here right now" KITT moved to stand in front of KIFT as KARR got himself back together, backing up slowly and causing KIFT to do the same "please go back, you can't be here right now, take KIRA with you and go!"

"I am not leaving you!"

taking advantage of the two's distraction KARR shot some of his own missiles at the pair, both evading the incoming projectiles just barely, responding to the attack KIFT shot a round of the incendiary bullets in the general area where she knew some of the tech that kept up his shield was located until finally sparks flew from the destroyed panel; furious, KARR unleashed a storm of bullets and other heavy duty weapons on the white Mustang, managing to land quite a few hits until KITT drove around him using the explosive bullets and one of the smaller missiles to try and knock him back.

The cloud of dark smoke that the last missile created around the tall robot made it impossible for either of the two AIs to see the massive clawed hands reach for both of them to swipe with enough strength to send them spinning against some leftover empty boxes, the rough, sharp finish of the metal alloy in KARR's skin leaving its mark where he had struck the two cars as some white paint was added to the black residues stuck to the robot's hands from earlier in the battle. For a while the two sides exchanged shots in a similar fashion, resulting on heavy damage on the three AIs by now; KITT and KIFT were able to dodge most shots but their shields gave out faster under KARR's weapons and physical impacts while the two mentioned first landed most of their hits on the robot but had to face breaking through a tougher outer skin.

KITT stood his ground firmly as the three AIs reached yet another standoff, smoke and sparks occasionally flew from several areas where cables and other important equipment had been damaged or destroyed; the two battle-ready Mustangs stood tall despite their damage, ready to attack or defend themselves against whatever move the rogue AI would do next. The black Mustang took a few seconds to take a glance at KIFT, noticing the long gray scraped that marked her side not much unlike himself along with some more prominent dents and a few burn marks from the missiles that stained the white previously bright white finish, formulating a plan in his processor KITT contacted KIFT through their internal link "go help Katherine KIFT, I'll deal with KARR, if she isn't able to get KIRA back on her own before your EMP wears off completely she will most likely require some assistance"

The AI stood silent for a few seconds, thinking about it now that Katie could be in danger, rather reluctantly the white Mustang turned around to head around the corner across the hangar

the corrupted AI saw what they were trying to do so instead of going for KITT he focused his attention of the white Mustang "you will not interfere in what does not concern you anymore!"

KARR shot out his own grappling hook towards the white Mustang, managing to get it stuck in one of the car's rear fenders, seeing this KITT launched forwards towards KARR despite his state calling for her "KIFT!"

She was throwing herself in all directions, after darting out of the hangar at full speed she started opening her driver's side door to try throw her out while drifting but Kate remained completely glued to the seat, holding onto the seatbelt as her only literal lifeline while at the same time trying to stay focused on finding that one file that would let her access KIRA's main core controls.

The first thing Kate noticed when the car came back on was that KIRA's Globe-like voice modulator was turned off, it was completely black and knowing that the little globe in the console was directly connected to the car's AI chip she had a bad feeling set in the pit of her stomach, after a second she took all the courage she could manage and started to work on her plan once more. After rebooting her system she would have only a few seconds to get out before the automatic safe lock was activated by her central computer to begin the reset; if this worked the way she hoped then there wouldn't be a single trace of KARR's virus in her but if it didn't…well there wouldn't be much of KIRA left after the reboot

The force of the car's turning and erratic driving had Katie holding onto anything she could when the door flung open while reading through the long lists of files; desperate as her moves became more erratic Katherine held the wheel down to stop the reckless turns and drifts, fighting for control she somehow managed to keep the wheel straight against the AI's surprising strength over the wheel "KIRA you have to listen to me...please, this is not you!" Katherine desperately glanced at the dark voice modulator, hoping for at least a sign that her friend was somewhere in there still, despite her pleas the car kept its erratic movements as if nothing had happened and in the middle of a burst of speed she the AI threw the car into a hard drift that not even the specialized aerodynamic aerodynamic equipment was able to control. The car tumbled and flipped twice before landing back on its wheels, shaking the passenger inside around despite the seatbelt, Kate knew the trick had hurt her arm in some way because it was now starting to throb but at the time she couldn't care less.

Seconds later the car regained herself and resumed the erratic driving yet after some minutes of struggling and looking through all the files Kate found what she was looking for, it was a tiny file named Alpha 1 which opened with a huge paragraph of binary code that kept streaming down in the background as another set of files appeared on the display, a smaller group of files with the names Beta 1 trough 5 were the ones she was looking for, one of those was the one she needed, the question now was which one of them was the correct file? if she chose the wrong one she could accidentally delete everything since she knew for a fact that the command to dump the entire core was there alongside the one that would cleanse the system; a LOT was at stake right now... Kate closed her eyes as silent tears made their way down her face both from frustration and the growing pain in her arm, for a few seconds she kept her eyes shut until a low beeping made hers look back up to the screen when now the file Beta 3 flashed for a few times "K-KIRA?..." the AI's Globe-like voice modulator lit up for a fraction of a second with just enough brightness for the driver to be able to see it before going back off. Katie couldn't believe it, somewhere behind all the mess that the virus was causing KIRA was still there and fighting, she pressed the file before unbuckling herself and opening the door, the car was starting to slow down but she didn't have the time to wait for it to come to a full stop, she jumped out and rolled over to not hurt herself any more and got up in time to see KIRA halting to a stop some meters away as her engine just suddenly shut off and her wheels locked in place, her scanner went dark and the windows were completely blacked out just as her suspension collapsed and brought the car to be practically resting on the ground with the ear-wrenching sound of metal scraping against the pavement as the remaining momentum carried the car for another few meters, a slight blue gleam rippled through the entire car signaling that the secondary shield was activated just then; Katherine stood back up and stared at the car as only one thing came to her mind "KIRA?..."

The main room of the secluded base filled up with people the moment Mike and Sarah left with some of their highly trained personnel in helicopters and vans to go to where the AIs were currently fighting, they had managed to recover the live video feed from both AIs and everyone sat in silence with their eyes glued to the screen and the carnage it showed.

The room's silence was broken as Connor ran into the room, crashing against Matt and Sydney, catching the surrounding techs' attention

"whoa Connor what happened?"

"where's Katie,? I need to speak to her now!"

"she went out with KITT, why?"

"Matt please tell me she didn't take that Knight industries missile…"

"it's equipped in KITT" at that moment Matt saw Connor's face change to an alarmed expression "Connor what did you find about that missile?"

"that thing is way more dangerous than we thought, if KITT shoots KARR inside that hangar, from that short range the shockwave alone could cause serious damage to him"

"Connor how strong is that missile?"

"that thing had been heavily modified, that's why it's just bigger than the first model, it packs twice as much explosives as the original model plus several added features that-"

"Connor just get to the point!"

"That missile is equipped with a dampening shield that prevents even KITT from knowing what's inside it; the thig is also equipped with a very strong EMP blast that is detonated a second after being shot and only specially coded equipment will be immune to the EMP…if that thing is fired inside that hanger not will only KARR be destroyed but there is a high chance that the the shockwave can cause some severe damage to our AIs since being hit with the EMP will deactivate their active shielding and I'm not even going to start on the scale of destruction that the specialized chemical fire and actual explosion can cause to them without those shields"

"how are things like these out there right now?"

"there aren't, the one KITT was was the only one that was actually produced since it was never field tested due to unforeseen circumstances that were not really specified, I suppose they just forgot about it and left it to be stored as another prototype. We can continue this talk later, right now I have to tell Katherine about this before things get out of hand and KITT uses the missile"

"there's a problem with that"

"what is it?"

"we currently have no way of communicating with them, we are only receiving the life feed from them now because of a small breach that was found in the dampening shield's code"

"well this is some really important information that they need to know asap, there has to be a way of contacting them"

"we've been trying, nothing so far and I fear that the window we have to tell them is getting smaller by the second"

"why is that?"

Before Matt had a chance to answer the sound of another incoming video feed caused everyone in the room to turn to look at the main screen

Katie started walking towards KIRA after regaining herself from jumping out of the car fully, it was horrible for her to just see her closest friend in this state, reaching out Kate placed a hand right above one side of the motionless scanner, the smooth metal surface was now cold to the touch opposite to the regular warmth that the AIs constantly kept; Katie kneeled down and rested her back against the front end of the car as she slid down and sat on the cold ground, holding her arm to try and find a position in which it hurt less, She looked at the dark sky that was already starting to show the hints of dark orange of the approaching sunrise and closed her eyes, snuggling closer to the car to seek some sort of shielding from the chilly breeze of the early morning.

The distant sounds of gunshots, explosions and clashing metal called to the side of her that wanted to do something to help KITT and KIFT while the more logical side reminded her that she would most likely just be a burden to the two since they would most likely have to end up protecting her from the robot that was KARR…besides, she still needed to be there for KIRA when her system had finished cleansing fully from that virus. Another breeze flew by and caused the young driver to hug her knees closer to her seeking some warmth now that the jacket she was wearing didn't seem to be as good as she thought.

The passing minutes seemed eternal as she waited for some sign that KIRA was coming back online and that she was still herself after all this ordeal and it wasn't until a few more minutes later of partial silence that a faint humming came from the AI. Kate stood up immediately and watched as the suspension rose back to its normal position, lifting the car back up while the windows un-tinted themselves just before the scanner came back on with a more familiar bright scarlet red.

Katherine took a few steps back as this happened and waited for the scanner to start tracking once more with its classic low whooshing sound, as soon as that happened the young woman walked until she was back in front of the car, waiting for a sign that this was actually KIRA in front of her now.

The very second she recovered the ability to see properly the outside world the AI relished in the feeling of being able to stretch completely into every corner of her shell and gain access to all of her functions; taking a few seconds to re-focus the visual aspect of her scanner KIRA nearly vented a sigh of relief at the sight of her lifelong friend "Katherine?"

"K-KIRA...is that really you?"

"Who were you expecting?"

Katie let out a long breath of relief she didn't knew she was holding and all but nearly threw herself over the car, the pain in her harm completely forgotten, she kneeled back down to be at 'eye' level with KIRA, closing her eyes with her forehead against the brightly lit scanner "never pull any stunts like this again, ever KIRA, I really thought I was going to lose you…" Katherine stood back up and looked over the black and blue Mustang, she was relieved to see nothing more than a few scattered scratches from her fighting against KITT.

KIRA drove forwards until her front bumper was pressed against the front of Katie's legs and her engine produced a very low purr as she spoke next "don't worry, I do not think I want to do this again either" at that point the Mustang noticed the carefulness her driver was holding her arm with "you are injured?" driving back a short distance she looked at the young woman "what happened?"

Could she not remember anything that had happened tonight? "don't worry about it, it's nothing serious" now knowing what kind of reaction she would get if she told her that it had been her while under the virus' control she decided to lie about it and save it for when things calmed down more.

A loud explosion from the inside of the hangar shattered the silence completely, bringing Katherine crashing back down again to what had been happening behind her

"Kate…what was that?"

"KARR is fighting against KITT and KIFT"

"the two of them are going against KARR?" What had really happened in the past few hours of gaps in her memory?

"they have been for a while now but you were still under that virus' effects…do you not know anything of what happened?"

"the last thing I have recorded in my memory banks was right before KARR deactivated me here, I have no records of what could've happened in whatever time went by in between that day and right now"

"well I'll tell you everything as soon as we are done here" she started to walk towards the driver's side door "right now we need to help them, you ready?"

the loud, healthy growl of her engine coming to life was all the answer she needed

"let's go then"

Driving around the corner of the hangar the scene caused both AI and driver to stop completely to take in and process what was happening; KIFT and KITT where cornered by KARR, blocking them in his robot form, the black Mustang remained in front of KIFT, protecting her from the opposing AI since she did not look like she was in good condition and by now KITT really did not stand far behind, KARR had taken a beating as well but remained standing with the same tall posture as earlier despite the occasional sparks and hissing of certain mechanisms that had been damaged or off-lined.

"KIRA what can we do, give me options"

there were a few seconds of silence with no response from the AI, her fear resurfacing once more at the sight; Kate had to call her attention once more.

The AI's voice modulator flickered for a split second as she turned her attention back to her driver "I apologize...I believe our best option would be to use my grappling hook to make KARR hopefully fall to the ground, giving KITT and KIFT at least a chance to get out from the corner he has them in"

"okay sounds good but I have to warn you, KARR is covered with some stupidly strong alloy that will cause a lot of damage to your Nano-skin if he hits you, KITT and KIFT had a new stronger covering that helped them resist his hits a bit more but that did not last as long as we had expected"

"I will make sure to try and avoid him but the maneuvers we might have to make could take us within range of a direct hit"

"we don't have much of a choice, get your grappling hook ready"

"hook prepared, acquiring target"

"Fire as soon as you have a clean aim at the target, we'll drive around him and pull back to make him fall...go for it KIRA"

silently driving behind KARR the AI shot her grappling hook at the perfect angle to get it stuck in one of the robot's leg, this immediately caused him to focus his full attention on the black and blue Mustang as she drove around him; KITT managed to help KIFT get out of the corner by slightly pushing her to get away faster as KARR remained occupied trying to get a hit on the Mustang yet before he was able to do that KIRA pulled on the cable with enough strength to make KARR tumble to the ground.

Both AIs watched in slight amazement at KIRA working to help them against KARR, they supposed that whatever Katherine had done it managed to get back the real KIRA. As KARR came tumbling down KIRA drove straight towards the other two AIs, stopping in front of KITT, worry clearly evident in her voice as she spoke

"we have to get out of here, that cable will not be keeping him down for long"

KITT glanced between the two, taking an extra second on KIFT to relatively assess the damage KARR had inflicted on her "as much as I want to leave now that you are fine it would be impossible for us to outrun KARR in our current state"

"we are not going to be able to defeat him now, there has to be another way for us to escape" by the end of that sentence the snapping sound of the steel cable that was holding KARR in the ground resonated in the hangar's walls and catching making everyone's attention on him, KITT then took a split second decision as he turned around "KIRA you and KIFT go back and intercept the incoming support team, I'll hold KARR until then"

KIFT quickly moved to face the midnight black Mustang "your shields are almost completely down and your Nano-skin is overworked, if we leave you here on your own you'll become an easy target"

"it will provide more time for you to get away, do as I say now"

KARR stood back up to his full height and let out an angry growl from his engine, the young AI positioned herself next to KITT and answered KARR's challenge with an equally loud rumble "we are not leaving KITT, there is a higher chance the three will make it out fine if we stay"

Reluctantly the AI accepted the fact that there was no way in making either of the two back down. the group turned to look at KARR, challenging him with threatening roars amplified by the tall ceiling as each red scanner tracked quickly in anticipation, the real fight was just about to start …

The minutes that followed seemed like an eternity for the tree AIs and single driver, drawing most of KARR's fire to herself KIRA managed to keep most of the shots from the other two AIs since they were already in worse condition than her. A shower of bullets shot in KIFT's direction made KIRA and her driver change focus completely in the distraction of the Mustang as she received a direct impact on her side from one of KARR's clawed hands, taking advantage of her distraction, sending her flying into a wall and shaking loose more than one system as well as bringing down her shield's integrity to under seventy percent; the few seconds that took her to regain her composure were enough to give KARR a window to direct one of his few remaining missiles towards a distracted KITT.

Katherine screamed the black Mustang's name despite knowing he wouldn't be able to hear her as she saw KARR aim his rocket at him, KIRA would never make it to him in time and KITT himself was out of time to try and make any maneuvers but a flash of white made contact with the Knight three thousand right before the missile was shot, sending him skidding a few meters away from the cloud of smoke and fire around where the missile had hit. The two black Mustangs raced to the dissipating smoke to an injured KIFT as KIRA shot a missile of her own to knock down their enemy. Burnt over the white KITT blocked her from an approaching KARR as he spoke in an alarmed and concerned tone at the sight of her flickering scanner and headlights "why would you rush in like that?! You were damaged enough as it was to take on that missile"

In a low tone tinged with a static distortion the white Mustang inched forwards to get closer to KITT "if that missile had hit you where it was aimed at the chances were high you would've been damaged enough to allow KARR an easy kill…I could not allow that"

"you should've stayed where you were, I could've figured something out…there was no need for you to intervene like that!"

KIFT's scanner flashed with a slightly brighter intensity for a second before dropping back to a flickering low glow as she struggled to close in on KITT until their front bumpers were almost touching, she spoke in a low tone as the static threatened to drown her words completely

"years ago when you took me from KARR in the first place you saved me…I never had a chance to repay the favor" there was a short pause as her scanner flickered once more "until now…"

The midnight black Mustang processed those last few words multiple times, trying to find some meaning other than the obvious…KIFT couldn't die, he couldn't let that happen, it wasn't going to happen right now right in front of him while he was standing not able to do anything to help her "KIFT…we are going to find a way out of this, but you have to stay with me "

KIFT slightly leaned forwards so that the edge of her hood was touching KITT's their scanners just inches apart "Thank you KITT…for everything"

The dimly lit scanner flickered once more before going completely dark, a low hum and a dying engine signaled whatever was left of the AI's internal computer shutting down to the multiple warnings of failing systems. KITT backed from the shell slowly as his processor fought to grasp what he was seeing while the younger AI stood a few meters away in a similar state, Kate remained inside her Mustang with her hands tightly squeezing the steering wheel in silent support to her lifelong friend while silent tears made their way down her face.

From across the hangar the sound of KARR's engine growling made the two AIs switch their attention on him, KITT turned to face the robot before he roared his engine in a way that neither KIRA, Katherine or the techs watching the live feed at base had seen before as bright orange flames escaped through his exhaust in fury.

KIRA stared at the robot's figure in silence as Kate remained somewhat entranced at the sudden change in the midnight black Mustang's demeanor and sound of his engine, the young AI was starting to feel the same blind fury she was sure KITT was feeling but the way her system reacted happened to be unexpected and surprising to everyone as the tone of her engine changed into a deeper idling rumble while panels slid and shifted around her to change her whole appearance: her scanner became slightly longer and thinner as an air intake popped up at the rear end of her hood in the center, two similar ones appeared on her sided right after the door line and her spoiler rose slightly, the edges creating a curve downwards for a better air flow; the double blue stripes disappeared to create two deep electric blue lines on each side of the car that started at the edges of her headlights, running down the full length of the car's sides before ending at the rear fenders, a set of thin double stripes ran through her roof and the two sets of exhaust pipes on her rear end merged into a single elongated opening in the lower middle of her rear bumper. In the white lights of the hangar her electric blue accents seemed to glow even more, with a threatening growl that shot blue flames out her own exhaust Katherine remained in slight shock at what just happened before gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles in anticipation "come on KIRA, let's show this guy not to mess with our family…"

With a determined expression car and driver shot forwards, KITT following close behind, this fight needed to end, and it needed to end right now.

Sparks and smoke sizzled from multiple joints and areas in KARR as he struggled to stand up once again after another assault from the opposing two AIs, he was running out of bullets by now but he knew for a fact that they had already used all of their arsenal, now they were reduced only to direct physical hits that would still inflict some damage in them with what remained of his protective modified outer layer. As he stared the black and blue Mustang down he detected his brother making a move from behind, instantly he turned around and knocked him out of his path with a clean swipe that sent him spinning into a wall just as he received another impact from the younger AI that nearly knocked him back to the ground; using his last remaining missile he scared the blue and black Mustang away, after all that had happened there was no way he was going to let her go just like that…

The robot took off after her but was stopped by one of KITT's grappling hooks, his momentum still managed to carry him into another fall but not before reaching out and transmitting his full weight mid-fall into a well-placed hit in the running Mustang with enough strength to make her loose her ground and sent her tumbling with several flips out the open hangar's doors…

As they tried to shake KARR off Katie nearly screamed at KIRA to watch out before receiving another impact from KARR that caused her to tumble with several flips towards the open doors of the hangar, ending right outside the large building when one of her flips caused her front end to collide with one of the doors and her momentum changed to send her sliding for a few more meters out in the open; on the inside the screen flickered and sparks flew from the rear left wheel well where KARR's hand had made contact with her, leaving a large dent and creating a long crack on her fender.

Katherine laid on her seat the with some blood on the side of her forehead where her head had impacted with the window, feeling once more the pain in her arm resurface, concerned the AI immediately called to her driver.

"Kate, Katherine are you all right?"

rubbing her head with eyes closed she answered through gritted teeth "I'll be fine, how are your shields? That impact was way stronger than the last one"

"my primary shields are now mostly inoperative and my Nano-skin is down to fifty percent of its capacity" checking over her systems further the AI realized that KARR's impact not only had destroyed whatever was left of her shields, but it had managed to break through them entirely and considerably damage part of the structure around it and her suspension, moving was not going to be an easy task after this "Katherine I am receiving an incoming emergency call from headquarters"

"put it up on screen, do a quick diagnostic check and tell me what functions you still have available to go against KARR"

a second later and Connor's alarmed face appeared on the windshield's flickering screen "Katherine!"

"Connor what in the world are you-"

"Do not let KITT fire that Knight Industries missile that we found, stop him from using it and warn him somehow not to use it!"

"why what is that thing going to do if-"

"Kate if you fire that missile inside the hangar a short-range EMP will be deployed a second after being shot and deactivate all the AIs, the shockwave from the initial explosion in itself is strong enough to throw all of you back, the chemical fire and strength of the explosion now will cause critical damage to any AI in the vicinity"

"Are you seriously just saying all this now?!"

he held his head and gave a long sigh "that missile was specially designed to counterattack Knight Industries AIs specifically…there was no way of contacting you guys until now"

the connection ended and with some effort KIRA managed to focus most of her remaining energy and resources into getting that wheel straightened up so she could move with relative ease, by the time they got back inside the hangar seconds later the sight of KITT and KARR in opposite sides of the hangar facing each other down forced the black and blue Mustang to stop, the main rocket launcher on KITT's hood was already out and prepared to fire; the bright yellow tip of the Knight industries missile just visible. KIRA was about to launch forwards towards KITT as Kathrine yelled at him to stop just as KARR sped towards the knight three thousand, causing him to fire the missile in response…


	8. 8 Sacrifice

**Chapter 8**

 **Sacrifice**

Everything had happened in slow motion for her, from the very moment KITT fired the missile a bright yellow wave engulfed the room, KITT's red scanner died out followed by KARR's tumbling body as lights started to pop and die in an explosion of sparks due to the strength of the EMP, KIRA's flickering screen went dark as her breaks locked and her momentum carried her skidding forwards just as the airborne missile made contact with KARR; a visible shockwave shattered wooden boxes and the windows at the top of the walls while KITT was sent flying backwards, before Kate was able to see where he landed now that the shockwave reached her and KIRA, the sudden change in direction caused her to jerk abruptly as they flew backwards once more and into the nearest fence right outside the hangar as her head made contact with the window; her vision started cloud at the edges as she hung upside down after tumbling for whatever distance, looking at the blurry image of the building as flames exploded through the open doors and higher windows with a bang that sounded muffled in her barely conscious state over the ringing in her ears, a single word left her lips as her head injury and the surrealistic reality of her situation sunk in "KITT?..."

The second Connor saw the missile being fired from KIRA's flickering video feed he could feel a cold sweat break in dread, the two remaining video feeds shut down before anyone could see the damage the missile had caused yet the room went silent after witnessing this without nearly enough time to process the Knight Four Thousand's off lining during battle. Everything seemed so surreal especially to the group of techs that consisted of Katherine's friends, they literally just had a few months working here and things had already gone downhill exponentially for the past few days...what was even going to happen after this?

Slightly retaining some sense after the shock Matt asked one of the other techs nearby about Michael and Sarah's ETA on the location, their away team was still another hour away from the location and they had no idea of what had happened in the past half hour, for a second he wondered what would the lead tech's reaction would be, she was the white Mustang's driver after all but despite that she still didn't know… and Michael? Not even they knew what the Knight Three Thousand's status was after he shot that missile, what if he had also been…off lined? Something deep inside him told him that it was not the case and they would be able to bring him back from whatever damage the explosion had caused, at least he hung onto that sliver of hope for that; then there was KIRA and Katie, because the AI had also been shut down with the EMP wave he knew for a fact that at the very least she would've received the shockwave's impact but after that he had no idea, Kate was inside her when it happened too so what about her? Without the passenger restraint system activated by the car's computer she had only the seatbelt to hang on to but he doubted that had been enough to keep her completely safe…for now there was nothing else to do other than wait for the inbound team to arrive so he brought up the four cameras from the helicopters and vans that were on their way…hopefully they were not too late…

The sound crackling fire was the first thing that Kate was able to properly register as she started to regain her consciousness, slowly through blurred vision she was able to see the dark interior of the car only being illuminated by the flames that still burned the debris and shattered wooden boxes around her; unbuckling her seatbelt gravity puller her over into the passenger's seat, she groaned in pain upon hitting the door and window as she struggled to get up to try and climb over to the driver's side again and get out of the car through that door. It wasn't until after a few minutes of struggle that the young woman managed to open the door and climb onto the side of the car, multiple scorch marks tinted some of the otherwise black finish with dark gray over multiple dents and scratches that covered the entire car where the paint had been scratched or burned off.

Kate carefully slid down the car's hood and into the ground where she stood up holding on to the Mustang for support to look at the scene around her: the sky was now starting to brighten up with brighter oranges and yellows that signaled that sunrise was in full effect as bits and pieces of boxes and other materials laid strewn across the pavement around the still slightly open hangar doors, the rising cloud of black smoke that poured out from the windows at the top of the hangar's walls immediately brought all of the previous events flooding back into her fuzzy memory and again she turned to look at KIRA, she was lying mostly on her side now since both her left wheels were resting on top of a bent fence, what little was visible of the fender where KARR had hit them last was still sparking every now and then; Kate walked around the front of the car and started to knock on the AI's hood in hopes of eventually seeing some sign that she was there, seeing some sort of oil and other liquid dripping from one of the cracks in her hood and puddling underneath the car did nothing to alleviate her fears until at last after some minutes the scarlet red scanner flashed for a few seconds before shutting back down, KIRA was still there but at the moment too many systems had been damaged or shut down for her to power up properly.

After confirming that KIRA would be fine after getting fixed Kate turned towards the hangar as she remembered one of the last images she saw before passing out, KITT flying into the air as he received the shockwave's impact from a way closer distance that she had, considering he had already taken more damage than KIRA immediately she half ran half limped towards the burning hangar as she held her side in pain with her good arm; fire still burned in a larger concentration inside and the heat irradiated from the chemically modified fire had been concealed inside the walls, making the interior almost unbearable. Katherine slowly walked into the burning room and looked around walls of fire and debris to try and find the missing AI until the smoke and burning temperature forced her to back out.

After her failed attempts at searching for KITT she returned to KIRA, sitting down with her back against the Mustang's cool side, shivering as an early morning breeze blew across her, Kate looked up at the sky as it filled with the early morning colors, how long had she been out anyway? It couldn't have been that long…then came the question: how was she going to get out of this? As if in response to her musings the sound of helicopter blades reached her ears, shortly followed by approaching engines…

With the light of the approaching sunset Mike and Sarah were able to see the cloud of smoke that was rising in the horizon, now that they had left the forested area the helicopters had to fly at ground level next to the three vans they had taken to keep their attention down there was still not much they could see about the smoke's origin but they knew that the only possible explanation to it was four letters long…

Upon getting closer to the source the two shared a concerned look as they recognized the one place they hadn't seen in so long, the old SSC remained as they had left it from a distance yet the black smoke rising from the back clearly told another story. Getting around the back the vans parked in the middle of a field of rubble and dying flames, the two helicopters landed a short distance behind them; Mike and Sarah climbed down and walked around the open space in search of any of the AIs or their daughter wondering just what had happened here, it didn't take long before the two heard their daughter calling for them from afar, standing next to the younger of the AIs as she remained half leaning on her side against a fence, scanner dark…

"Katherine!" Sarah ran towards her daughter as soon as she saw her next to the AI, worry irradiating off her face when she finally got to her "what happened to you, are you all right?"

"I'll be fine, it's nothing"

"you have blood coming from your head that doesn't look 'fine' to me" she took a quick look at her, noticing how she kept her arm close to her "and what happened to your arm?"

"mom I'll explain all that happened once we are back, right now we have more important things to attend to"

"you are getting in one of those helicopters and going back, your father and I'-"

"no, I am not leaving right now, I'm staying with KIRA"

"but Kate you need to-"

"no, no 'but Kate' mom, I am staying with her"

the determined look in her eyes was enough to let the tech know that there was on changing her mind, with a resigned nod she turned to look at Mike, who by now was walking around the AI

"Sarah when did your guys implement this…attack mode…into KIRA?"

"they didn't I had been thinking about it for a while but the program hasn't been designed" the woman took a look around the Mustang, noticing now the changes in her color pattern and some of her panels "this was not us…"

"KARR?"

"I highly doubt it, Kate did you know about this?"

"I know as much as you do, she just transformed after-…"she took a pause in realization, her mother probably still didn't know what had happened to KIFT and it hadn't been until now that she truly processed it.

slowly Sarah stood back up from where she had been kneeling down inspecting some of the damage in the black and blue Mustang "after what?"

"…after KARR killed KIFT…"

Sarah turned to look at her daughter with a blank expression "what…?" Mike looked between his daughter and wife as he too heard what had apparently happened, Sarah held Kate by her shoulders as she spoke "what did you just say…?"

"not too long before all this happened-" she gestured around her "-KARR shot a missile directly at KITT, it would've been a fatal hit but KIFT barreled in and knocked him out of the way, taking the missile herself…"

Sarah took a few steps back as unshed tears built up in her disbelieving light eyes "where is she?"

"somewhere inside the hangar, I went in earlier but…the fire"

staring into the smoke filled hangar for a few seconds Sarah ran full speed towards it, Mike calling her name and running after her almost all the way until he was able to held her back at the very entrance where smoke was already pouring out "Sarah stop, you can't go in there!"

"I have to get her Mike!" she fought against his grip until he let her go, turning to face him with tears in her eyes

"Sarah…I wish I could help, I really do, but there is nothing we can do until the fires are put out or at least weakened enough to be able to get in" he took a deep breath, looking at the open doors "KITT is in there somewhere as well…just as you do I am dying to get in there and get him out but as it stands we have to wait" feeling just as powerless as she was Mike took her in an embrace as he led her back to where Katherine stood next to her AI with worry written all over her face, wondering just what carnage would be left behind from both KARR and the fire…then he realized 'what would even be left of KARR?' the missile had struck him directly and although she did not know how his internal structure was organized she knew that even if it didn't hit directly where the AI's core chip was located the strength of the impact was sure to shatter not only that but his shell in itself…

a while later a third helicopter landed with the others after radioing a nearby town for supplies to put out some of the fire, the team Mike and Sarah had brought ventured into the hangar with proper equipment to locate the AIs and get rid of the fire directly around them to buy some more time until the truck that would be able to pull them out of the building arrived, since Kate explained to her father how everything had blown up and about the missile they had used on KARR the whole team's main priority became to get their AIs to safety and the first task to achieve that was to get them clear of the fire around them to avoid any further damage that could come to them.

Seeing everything from a distance Kate refused to leave KIRA's side, with the help from one of the vans that arrived with the team they had managed to pull her down back into all four wheels, now that the car was finally sitting back the way it should the fatal impact that KARR had last delivered and the damage it caused was clearly visible: beyond the large apparent dent around the area Kate was able to see small broken and bent steel beams surrounded by thin cables that hung down after being snapped by the strength of the impact, the coil that was the suspension had snapped and some kind of fluid was dripping down the structure and lightly puddling in the ground. After all that had happened during the course of the early morning Kate could only sit and look around the disaster zone that was around her, still trying to process everything that had happened through her shock…things really were going to change after this ordeal…

an hour later FLAG managed to reestablish contact with their people at the old SSC, live feed from one of the cameras mounted on the company vans transmitted a panoramic view of the obstacles the group had to overcome to be able to reach the AIs inside the fiery room. After a while the smoking shell of the white and blue AI was pulled out, dark grey stained the previously white color in areas where the fire had remained for too long but yet most of the car didn't have much damage from the explosion or fire, apparently the initial shockwave had pushed the car over to a side where several iron plates that had been pushed after her created a type of relatively enclosed area that had shielded most of her from the secondary blast and the fire, most of the damage on her was the one caused by KARR but that alone even from a distance gave the techs at base enough to tell that it would be almost impossible to bring her back, to save her in case there even was something to be saved.

Shortly after leaving the Mustang a safe distance from the hangar the truck went back in to retrieve the remaining AI inside, even at first glance it was easy to tell that the fire had been around him for much longer, whatever was left of his Nano-skin had protected most of the car for a long time but in some areas his paint had been burned down to the metal, shards of metal scattered by the explosion had imbedded themselves in multiple areas; the fire damage on the rear end had been far worse than on the front to the point that even one of the specially designed rear tires had succumbed to the prolonged extreme heat and remained only barely hanging around the rim by the edges with most of it melted down.

As KITT was pulled into the open and set next to KIFT's shell the whole team crowded around them, Mike came in trotting through the people until he was directly in front of KITT, falling to his knees in shock at the damage, he had never seen his friend like this and honestly he wasn't expecting this much extensive damage; then he looked at KIFT next to the older AI, multiple scorch marks covered her previously pristine white paint and dents and scratches were scattered through her shell. Mike stood up and walked around the two AIs as he took in everything up until he reached the Knight Four Thousand's rear end and saw the shattered side window and destroyed center console "oh shit…"

A minute later Sarah busted through the people around the AIs and fell down right in front of KIFT's shell, just a few inches away from the cracked, dark scanner as she stared absentmindedly at the wrecked car in front of her, not sure if she couldn't or didn't want to believe what had happened…

It wasn't until late evening that the away team returned with the three cars, another group had been sent back to recover as much as possible from KARR's shell and they were scheduled to return by nightfall but on the meantime everyone back at base had been moved to do their assigned tasks to aid in recovering the AIs.

Each one of the cars was placed in one of the three separate work bays through the back entrance of the base and techs flooded in with specific equipment and tasks, the larger group went to the one room where Sarah was with the white and blue Mustang while slightly smaller groups focused on the remaining two; a few hours after their arrival Katherine's friends in cooperation with some of the techs had made some significant progress on KIRA but they were still quite a ways of being able to try and bring her back online, with some more nonstop hard work by the end of that day the group was starting to get ready to see if they could bring KIRA back online.

"Noah how are you doing with that reboot sequence?"

"Almost there Matt, just a few more minutes"

as the group kept working Katherine came in through one of the doors on the side of the room still holding her side at times when she walked, her left arm resting on a sling, giving everyone the impression that she had snuck out of the med bay to come "Matt!"

The tech turned around after the source of his name to see Katherine nearly trotting towards him, immediately he met her half way across the room and stopped her where she was "Katherine what are you doing here? You should be back at the med bay getting some much needed treatment!"

"I am fine Matt, now-"

"Katherine stop, you need to go back to get medical attention we have things under control here KIRA will be back online in a few minutes" Matt quickly looked her over as he spoke and noticed her arm sling "What happened to you back there?"

"it's nothing"

"Kate…nothing does not require having your hand wrapped up like that, what happened back there?"

before she could even answer Ryder called out for Matt "fifteen seconds Matthew"

"okay check her stats as soon as you have them"

exchanging looks between both Kate again spoke to Matt "what is he counting down for?"

"we're working on getting KIRA back online"

her eyes widened "bringing her online? Right now just like any other routine shutdown?"

judging by the look on the young woman's face Matt turned his full attention on her "yeah…why?"

"Stop them"

"what, why?"

"Matt stop the reactivation sequence right now!"

Ryder's voice calling over the last remaining seconds was inaudible to the two as they spoke "what's wrong Kate why are you so alarmed by this?"

"if you reactivate her now she'll go through a sensory overload stop the reactivation sequence!"

alarmed he turned around to look at Connor Sydney across the room as he called for her to stop the sequence but by then they had only a second before the car's engine roared to life, the Mustang's scarlet red scanner flashed brightly as the car lurched forwards, only being stopped by the straps that secured her to the platform she was on; a bright blue flame shot from the exhaust for a second due to the strength of the initial combustion that started the engine that now made the desks rattle…

The last thing she remembered was the vivid image of KITT shooting the modified Knight Industries Missile before all of her systems were brutally forced into shutdown, leaving her completely in the dark and unaware of her surroundings as her processor wondered for the longest time if KITT and Katie were okay. There was no way for her to tell how much time she had been offline, it could've just been mere 20 minutes or 20 hours for all she knew, as she sat in the dark void that was her core for a while eventually she felt the slight ping of the reactivation codes accessing her systems so she expectantly got ready to receive the energy flow of each of her systems as they were reactivated…but nothing came, even after she waited for a while her systems were not coming back online yet the reactivation sequence was still taking place.

She wondered if there was something wrong with her systems, maybe the explosion had damaged her systems further after the was deactivated and that was why they were not responding; it frustrated her to no end to be completely unable to know anything about herself, she only retained recent memories and the only feeling she had was the numbness of sensory deprivation, that last part was what she found the worst, anything could be happening to her on the outside and she would have no way of knowing and simply going back to this basic state after getting used to being able to feel any physical sensation through her sensors was uncomfortable beyond belief.

Without any warning her state of unawareness turned into hyperawareness in a fraction of a second as she regained control of all of her systems at once, entering in a sensory overload that made her literally jump forwards with the forced ignition of her engine caused by hey sensory system being overloaded with the vivid sensation of the damage she had suffered during the battle being transmitted in waves of what could only be described as pain; her vision was clouded with both warnings and static fuzziness from the sustained damage as she felt the straps tense up around her wheels with the strength of her initial pull, why was she strapped down? Another though crossed her processor as she considered the possibility that she wasn't back home or with people she knew, had KARR managed to beat KITT? …the possibility of her being taken by the rogue AI's group of techs sounded more and more like a possibility as she kept the idea going around her processor and since her vision was still clouded she had no idea of what or who was around her. She had to get out of there now and find a way to get back home so ignoring the pain still present in every part of her shell she started to push through the straps in hopes of getting free, she had to at least try.

Matt held back Katherine as the black and blue car in front of them pulled at the straps and fought to get away from an unseen threat, her friends called out for her to calm down as the car shook and pulled to get free but there was no sign so far that they were responding; in a swift movement the young driver got free from Matt's grip and ran to the front of the car, calling the AI's name over and over again begging her to stop and listen but still her efforts had the same effect as the others' words. Determined to help her she stood just inches away from the car's nose and kneeled down as she placed both hands above the brightly lit scanner that remained tracking in a frenzy over the Mustang's grille, she called the AI's name telling her to calm down, that she was there for her, repeating her own name every now and then in hopes of triggering some reaction…at the very mention of her own name the first few times the pitch of her engine switched to a slightly more familiar roar that slowly toned down from the panicked whine of the turbo chargervinto a grumbling sound as the car stopped fighting the restrains and the scanner shimmered and lowered to its normal glow as it flickered, a few more seconds went by as Kate stared into the bright scanner waiting for a response from the AI.

"Katie?..."

the young driver just barely managed to contain her joy at the sound of her lifelong friend's voice, she was still there despite all that had happened in the early hours of the morning "KIRA, yes it's me" she leaned forwards until her head was leaning against her scanner with closed eyes, the Mustang leaned into the touch pulling at her straps as her engine purred lowly knowing that she was in fact back home and that her driver was just fine.

The static-filled sight of her driver immediately managed to ease down her hurried thoughts but some warnings remained on the corners of her field of view, as Kate stood back up to talk to the other people in the room all the clear memories of the previous events started to flood back until the point where the missile's modified EMP shut her down "Kate?"

The young driver instantly turned her attention to the AI "yeah?"

"where is KITT...and KIFT?"

"they're both in the other maintenance bays…KITT's slowly coming back but he has not been reactivated yet"

they remained quiet for a few seconds "and KIFT?"

the young woman looked away as she spoke next, letting the words out in a gently way "the techs are doing all they can, my mom is working with them personally to ensure that every available resource is used properly in attempting to bring her back…I don't know if they've made any real progress yet"

the AI remained silent as the image of both the other AIs was stuck to her, worry crept up in the back of her processor as a thousand possibilities of what could happen in what remained of the day circled around her already troubled mind…wait…how long had it actually been since the battle? Her systems were mostly still offline and others were taking their time to start back up so her current information about everything around her was very limited "Kate?"

"yeah?"

"how long as it actually been since our encounter with KARR?"

"close to 24 hours since it all started"

had it really been that long?

"another team came after the first one and we were able to bring you three back here by the end of that same evening but so far we've only been able to bring you back"

the AI remained silent from there as the techs worked to fix her, her sensory system had been turned down considerably after a few minutes to allow her system to settle down enough to start working, KIRA remained in her self-programed attack mode still since she was unable to transform while her body had such heavy damage and that had called the tech's attention, Kate's friends still were trying to figure out how it had been possible but not even the more experienced techs were able to come up with a logical explanation. From the moment she entered the room Kate begun instructing her friends on what to do since she was the one that had more experience in handling the AI's systems out of everyone in the room, after nearly killing Matt for using the regular reactivation sequence she got everyone back on track with fixing the damaged systems more efficiently despite her friends' persistence telling her to get some rest and attention on the med bay; as the hours passed Kate and her friends managed to get most of the AI's basic systems back up and just before sunrise that morning word got out that KITT had been reactivated, immediately receiving the news KIRA tried reaching out to the older AI through their internal link but it remained shut down, she supposed that the level of activation he was in at the moment was toned down to the very basics of being, if that was the case though how truly damaged were his systems that they had to keep him in a temporal state or partial awareness?

The last thing he remembered was staring KARR down with the Knight Industries missile at the ready inside the hangar littered with bullet shells and scorch marks from the previous battle before it all went dark, when he recovered some sense of consciousness later his processor immediately went to think about KIFT and KIRA, despite everything deep down he had some hope that the techs back at base were going to be able to bring her back and KIRA was just at the entrance of the hangar when he last seen her so he knew that the chances of her being hit by the same EMP that got him were high and again he wondered about their current state…

Around 24 hours after the initial fight had taken place the AI fought to try and recover any detailed memories of what had had happened, his systems were completely out of his reach and no matter how hard he tried there was no way for him to be able to bring his systems back, he couldn't even access his basic functions and it was now that he realized that it had been a very long time since he had been reduced to this state of being, surrounded by total unawareness; just as the thought came to his mind the familiar feeling of outside input caused him to lean in further into the the small flow of energy and data that was slowly being provided to him. Eventually he was able to gain access to some of his basic functions yet leaving all access to his shell just out of reach; as he waited another source of input made itself know in the shape of a simple black text box with a single sentence:

'KITT, it's Mike, are you there? Please respond.'

so he was indeed back at base, how much time had gone by since then? 'I am, hello Michael'

An audible sigh of relief escaped the man after seeing the AI's reply, the few seconds that it took him to respond had been enough to make him worry about any internal damage that could've reached his core but it seemed like despite everything he was doing fine behind all the external damage.

'Thank god, glad to see you're there'

'Michael would it be possible for me to know when I'm getting access to my systems again?'

Taking a look at the Mustang behind him he had to hazard a guess and say that it was still quite a while, his charred driver's side door had been removed for easier access to some of the electronics under the steering wheel and it remained on a long table across the room with some other components and parts that had been removed by the multiple techs that were currently working around the car

'We got the techs working on you around the clock, we're getting you back as soon as possible'

'Mike?'

'Yeah KITT?'

'Are KIRA and KIFT here?'

a feeling of dread settled in the pit of his stomach then, he knew where the AI was going with this and it would be difficult for him to explain everything through here 'They're being worked on as we speak' that would have to do for now 'you should get some rest, we're going to start to slowly give you more input but I think you should save some energy'

'…okay'

'I'll tell you if anything important happens'

'thank you Michael'

The man took a step away from the computer and looked back at the car, KITT still didn't have a way to tell the exact time so maybe that would make his wait less of a hassle; turning back towards the computer on the table he looked over the jumbled mess of cables and other electronic components that surrounded the small five-inch black box that was currently plugged into one of the maintenance computers, amazing how such a complex sentient being could just fit in the palm of your hand…he would never get used to seeing the normally powerful Mustang reduced to the base of his being, even after so many years the times when he had seen him like this could still be counted with a single hand.

About an hour later he left the room to grab a quick snack, now that he knew KITT was fine his body started to nag him for not eating since their return, in the few minutes that it took him to do that he found out that KIRA had been reactivated a few hours ago, to his surprise she already had access to most of her working functions, maybe she wasn't as damaged as it looked like…speaking of looks

"Billy are you busy?"

the tech turned around to face Mike as he entered the room "not really, why?"

"Have you seen KIRA yet since we arrived?"

"no, Zoe went to check on her a little bit ago, should be back in a few minutes"

just then the woman walked down the stairs and made her way to the two after going to check up on the AIs, she greeted the three as she sat down in her station

"Zoe did you check up on KIRA?"

"yeah, Kate and her friends are really getting some work done" she paused for a second as her face switched as she thought of something "actually…Mike did you and Sarah give KIRA her an attack mode?"

"yeah, that was precisely what I wanted to talk to you about"

"when did you guys install that upgrade?"

"we didn't, that was not us and it wasn't KARR either from what Kate told me"

"then how-"

"apparently she made that program on her own, in a matter of seconds or even less"

"and have the other techs gone over that program?"

"they have, surprisingly they say that there is no apparent flay or glitch, it's a perfectly done algorithm."

"If that is really true then it's really amazing, I knew that these AIs were really something when it came to super computers and highly advanced technology but creating such a complex program in a matter of seconds is truly impressive"

"still, I bring this up to you" he glanced between the two techs "the two of you, because I want you guys to check it out, confirm that there really isn't any flaw no matter how small, maybe the techs missed something and you two have way more experience when it comes to the AIs"

Billy nodded as he typed a few things on his computer before turning to Mike "don't worry, we'll get it done as soon as possible"

Thanking them Mike headed back to the repair bays, the one room where Sarah and some techs were still working on KIFT remained locked and some tools could be heard through the wall along with the constant status updates and commands, he supposed she was still too focused on trying to save the AI so he decided to let her be for a while longer; the room next contained his daughter and friends working on the younger AI, he could already hear the Mustang's engine working and despite it still not sounding like it should at least it was something to go for in that she was well on her way to recovery. Mike stopped just before opening the door the the room where KIRA was as he looked over to the first room he passed, he wondered not for the first time if the techs were going to be able to save the AI after all the damage she had sustained…he really hoped they would be able to, for Sarah and the other two AI's sake for the most part…hopefully there was something to even be saved from all of this chaos…

Half of the techs that had started to work with her on this endeavor had already left, given up on the task, she couldn't blame them though…why would she when the task at hand was starting to look almost impossible with every passing hour and failed attempt; the few that now remained in the room with her had their heads buried in the remains of the wrecked car in search of that one main chip that was the AI, the final blast delivered by car had shaken up most of the things that kept everything in place and the shockwave from the modified KI missile jarred everything loose, the bigger dents made access to certain areas of the car very difficult and some of the smaller components were hard to reach.

She took a glance at the few loyal techs that still remained wanting to help her and saw the tired expression on their faces, this whole marathon had gotten the best out of them and now they were starting to feel the drawbacks of a twenty-four-plus hour fixup, calling them she dismissed them so they could have some much needed rest and despite their complains eventually they agreed; Sarah walked back to her computer and checked the status of the latest search in one of the smaller components they had managed to retrieve to find that it had yet again been unsuccessful, reading the same 'Missing files or components' error she had been getting the entire evening. With a deep sigh she rested her back on the cool wall as she closed her eyes for a few seconds, after a little she opened her eyes and looked over the damaged shell of the Mustang that had once been her friend…with each passing hour it became harder and harder to be able to keep the hopes of being able to bring her back up, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor she stared at the dark scanner that still remained on the car almost at eye level with her and for the one millionth time she wondered if her partner and friend was somehow still in there somewhere, just waiting to be found.

A little while after that she found herself back at her computer running tests on another of the smaller components to see if there was anything to salvage from it but while doing so she ended up accidentally falling asleep on the desk. A few hours later she woke up to a dark room with a blanket over her shoulders and quickly she guessed Mike must've come to look for her after he realized that the other techs had gone, shaking the grogginess from her head and standing up to stretch her cramped back she woke the computer she was working on up to yet again see the same error message; frustrated she closed the laptop and slid to the floor with her back against the wall, after a few seconds she turned to look around the dark room with tears in her eyes to the barely discernible shape of the car, from one of the cracks in the shell around the front she noticed a fain glow of a dim blue light and practically jumping from her place she threw herself over the car.

Trying to see through the small crack she found the source of the light amongst the damaged engine components, chips and cables…a small red box was the source of the dim blue light, that small red box was one of the extensions of the secondary mainframe and if it was in good enough condition to be emitting that light then sure enough it was in good enough condition to retrieve at least some data that they could work with to bring the AI back. Taking a wrench from one of the tables she forced the crack open enough for her to be able to reach the box, pulling it to get it disconnected from the cables still attached to it she got it out and went back to her computer to plug it in, hoping that this was the one chance she had been looking for in all this time…

It was late at night, all of the techs and her friends had gone to have some rest now that they had managed to stabilize KIRA after bringing her online, Kate did not dare leave the room after what the two had gone through and instead opted to sleep inside the Mustang, as she looked at the flickering screed that was now displaying the system's integrity check progress she finally asked the question that had been eating away at her since all this ordeal had started…

"KIRA…can I ask you something?"

"of course"

"what happened? like…why did you just leave the way you did?" The AI remained silent as she thought of a possible way to explain herself, she hadn't thought about this until now but all of this was her fault…KITT and KIFT being damaged like they were, Katie getting injured and risking other people's lives. How could she go out and trust KARR like that? "KIRA?..." her driver's voice cut her short and from then she could only tell her what had happened exactly.

Starting from the beginning she explained about what had truly happened that night she had been abruptly brought out of her recharge startling everyone around her, the message that was transmitted through that and the reason she had decided to follow the instructions given, the AI paused for a little before telling her driver what had happened after the two had met; her arrival at the old SSC followed by the betrayal and subsequent off-lining before she regained herself after the reboot.

"so…that one time we had our encounter with KARR was the cause of all this then?"

KIRA wanted to simply say yes but deep down she knew that was not it, true that had been the start of it but she could've easily turned down the message and not go after him "No Katie, I was what caused this…it is because of me that KITT got badly damaged, that KIFT…might not be saved and the reason you are hurt. If I had not followed him, if I had rejected him from the start none of us would be here right now and-"

"no, KIRA, don't you dare carry this blame on yourself like that, KARR has a record for being a manipulative jerk, it's even possible that the same thing he used to entice you to go could've affected your decision or thought process in that regard so you do not need to blame yourself for this"

"you still got hurt even after I was myself again, after you brought me back…I know that when I wasn't myself I was the cause of your arm injury. I hurt you"

"KIRA you had nothing to do with that, and everything else happened mostly when we tumbled away from the hangar after KITT shot that stupid missile and even you were forced into shut down by that EMP so there was literally nothing you could do." Both remained quiet for a few seconds before the Mustang decided to break the silence "Katie?"

"yeah?"

"would you forgive me?..."

The black haired driver looked again at the globe-like voice modulator on the car's dash, the scarlet dot that served so much as a focal point for the AI was looking down in her direction giving the impression of that in a child after breaking something in the house. With a weak smile Kate placed her hand on the lower part of the steering wheel as she spoke "of course I do KIRA…I'm just glad to have you back"

Not long after the conversation the two had Katherine ended up falling asleep inside the car for a few hours, by the time she woke up KIRA was halfway through a database backup recovery and she would probably remain that way for another hour, if not more, the room was still alone and for the first time since she came to help she left the room in search of her parents. Stopping in the first of the rooms directly next to the one she was in she opened the door and saw a few techs watching over some computers as they worked on the AI, some of the panels had been removed from the Mustang to replace some of the circuitry that had been damaged beyond repair yet after talking to one of the techs she was glad to know that despite making slow progress KITT was well on his way to full recovery, laying on a chair in front of the car her father had fallen asleep.

she quietly left the room and went off to see her mother, she walked over to the door to the room she was in and stopped to listen but there was no sound that she could distinguish, had the techs gone away already?

Slowly she opened the door to see Sarah alone in the room sitting in front of a computer screen, the room around her was mostly dark and Kate managed to spot the small red box with the glowing blue light plugged into the computer.

"mom, you managed to save the secondary mainframe?" Kate stopped next to her mother and her expression was enough to tell her that things were not really what they looked like

"I…I managed to extract the extension of the secondary mainframe without damaging it" she grabbed the red box and brought it closer to Katie, flipping it upside down she showed one of the lower corners had charred marks on it and was slightly broken "I plugged it into the computer regardless, I hoped there would be something but…"

Kate looked at the screen and saw an extension of files, all had long tittles written in binary code, the one characteristic of corrupted files on any of the three AIs"They're all…gone?"

"Not all of them…" moving aside the corrupted files she brought one up 'Short term memory bank' it was in this area that immediate experiences were stored before moving over to the main memory banks and be stored, the only thing that was saved in that extension of the secondary mainframe were the last few minutes of visual, sensory and analytic data prior to deactivation, there was no data there that they could use to rebuild the AI's core coding. Sarah stood up from her computer and walked out of the room, Kate knew that this was the only thing that could give them some hope to recover the AI and now that they knew it was mostly corrupted data now there was no way to bring back KIFT, they could recreate the AI and save her memories on it but it wouldn't really BE KIFT, it would just be a replica where memories had no true significance or attachment to the new AI, the essence of who she was would be lost…

after a few minutes she started to browse through the few files that had remained intact, eventually she found the analytic and internal system data from the few minutes of the fight, it was set by times, each change in her systems was listed in a certain timeframe for that day, every change was recorded in the log; the oldest data was just twenty minutes before the latest log, some systems already appeared as damaged and a warning started announcing the primary shield's weakened state so by now the secondary shield and prototype protective cover were probably gone

Few minutes later the log started to turn red with failing or disabled systems, probably after receiving a strong blow as hinted by the spike in the sensory system of the AI right before her processor speed started to rise dramatically for a few seconds before almost all of the systems that had been online failed simultaneously, the last thing in the log were a few minutes after the massive failure, a single message in the early hours of the morning 'catastrophic system failure, shutdown imminent'

Remembering that KIFT had been transmitting a live feed from her to the SSC she looked to the transmission in the general files of the base and fast forward it to the point where the log was starting; just as she had though the spike in the sensory system and system failure had been caused by a hard blow KARR delivered on the AI, sending her tumbling to a side, near the end of the log and the recording was the moment KARR's missile hit KIFT, it spiked her sensory system as her processor speed dropped down to just a small fraction of what it normally was, that was probably just barely enough to be able to keep the car going for as long as she did somehow through the catastrophic system failure just before too many systems had shut down to be able to keep her online.

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as the situation downed on her, looking over the partially dismantled and damaged body of the AI she stood from her chair and got closer to the car where she placed her hand on the now rough surface; she closed her eyes in an attempt to shut out her own emotions and after a few seconds she stepped back again. She stood in silence, thinking…wondering what was to come now…thinking about KITT and KIRA, she needed to tell them just…not now, not while they both are in such fragile state of mind.

Turning off the computer she headed towards the door with slow steps, turning off the lights completely she stepped out of the room and looked at the dark shape of what once was the shell of not only one of the most advanced AIs ever created, but a friend…family. At last she closed the door slowly and headed down to her pod, walking at first her pace quickly evolved into a trot as the tears she was still keeping at bay threatened to fall; running past confused techs and even one of her friends she entered her pod and slammed the door shut behind her, keeping her back pressed against it she slid to the ground where she tucked her knees to her chest and hid her face in between her crossed arms, the hoodie of her jacket falling over and covering her from the light of her room where she was finally able to let everything she had been bottling up since her arrival back here go…

From the moment Sarah left the room where KIFT's shell was in she had kept a serious face, if anything the only emotion anyone would be able to read from her face was just sheer exhaustion…still she knew that it was all just a mask, one she had been perfecting for years when she had to put her feelings aside for the sake of a mission or someone's well-being, the only difference here was that unlike all those other times she would only be able to hold onto that mask for so long after all that had happened…after today. She walked through long hallways until she finally reached her and Mike's pod and to her relief Mike wasn't there, the man was probably still by the black Mustang's side as he slowly recovered and oh how lucky he was for that, Kate had stayed in the room when she left but it was just until then that she had seen her since their arrival simply because she never left KIRA's side while she was still offline…again the tech couldn't help but think how lucky she was too after all that had happened since to her everything still felt so surreal no matter how many times she told herself that this was just a bad dream she would soon awake from the pain and the emotions were still very much present.

Sarah walked around the room with a blank mind and glistening eyes full of still unshed tears trying to distract herself from the pain, her mind was still struggling to wrap around the idea that KIFT was no longer going to be there and it wasn't until a small part of her managed to let the reality sink in that she stopped walking in circles and just dropped to the ground holding her head with her hands as if in pain; tears streamed down her face silently as she looked at the ground absentmindedly, this was actually happening, there was no denying it anymore and no matter how hard she tried to hold onto hope the small spark that had resurfaced in her when she found that one section of the secondary mainframe almost intact was drowned in darkness the moment she realized that there was nothing she could extract from there to even start thinking of trying to save her…she was gone…

It wasn't until the following day that the news started to spread around the complex that there was no way of saving KIFT, most of the people around already knew and they had been warned to keep said topic to a minimum for as long as possible for the drivers' sake, especially around the AIs since they both had yet to hear any news from that and at the moment KIRA was still undergoing heavy repairs on most of her bodywork and KITT was just barely coming out of the sensory deprivation state that had been induced in while most of his files were being verified and reintegrated into his core system plus Kate and Michael were the ones they needed to hear the news from first for obvious reasons, after Sarah had left the room where the AI's shell was no one had seen her leave her pod, Mike had tried to go and get her already but he ended up getting yelled at until he left so it was clear that he needed to let her deal with this at her own pace. For most of that day Kate did not move from her place in her room and she had failed to get anything close to sleep even at the current late night hours and the only moment she left her spot was when Matt went to look for her, it took him a few tries but eventually Katherine opened her door to him…

The young man entered the room slowly and was surprised to be welcomed by Katie practically jumping over him in a tight hug, the silence in the room only broken by her occasional sobs, understanding what she was probably going through Matt closed the door of the room behind him and slowly led her over to her bed where he sat down with her, prying her away from him he truly understood how hard this was on her as he looked into her teary red eyes and her tired expression.

Pulling her into another hug he spoke in a low voice "Katie I…I'm so sorry, for all of this"

"I can't believe she's really gone…after all that she had gone through"

"I know, I know that I'm relatively new to all of this but even in such a short amount of time I think I already formed some sort of bond or attachment to the three of them, for you spending years living with her around she must've been like family"

"she really was…" taking a deep breath she pulled away "Matt how am I going to tell her? How am I going to tell KIRA that KIFT's…I can't do it, just yesterday she was asking me about her and I just told her that the techs were doing all they could to save her and now…"

"I can't imagine how she could react to this, KITT too"

"Matt her and KIFT had become really close, even more so than I was to KIFT, hell I'm sure that the two of them were probably almost as close as my mom was to KIFT, I can't tell her about it it'll break her…" she stopped to catch her breath and stop the tears that were threatening to fall down again "I don't know what to do…"

"you're going to have to tell her eventually, maybe not now since she might not yet be ready but either you tell her or she's going to end up hearing it from someone else so what would you rather it be?"

"I know I just…I can't…"

"I went to see her about an hour ago you know, she was asking for you" Kate looked up and met the tech's eyes "I told her you had gone off to get some sleep but that I would tell you to go see her. Kate I hate to be the one to tell you this and so soon too but…you have to be strong for her, when she hears about this she's going to need all the help she can to get over it and you're the only person she can lean on for it"

with a sudden flare of frustration Kate stood up and face Matt "How am I supposed to help her if I can't even help myself with this!?" she walked in circles as she tried to fight the feelings that were once again resurfacing "Matt we just stood there, I just stood there and watched it happen, I didn't do anything to try and save her from KARR's blast that one time I couldn't think of anything! I just feel so stupid…"

Matt stood up and went to her side "You're not stupid, you were scared and so was KIRA, there was nothing either of you could've done to avoid that so don't you dare blame yourself for this" he grabbed her by her shoulders and walked her over back to the bed "it's really late, you should try to get some rest, maybe it'll help you clear your head a small bit" the tech turned around and was already holding onto the door's handle when Kate jumped from the bed and grabbed his arm to stop him "Matt wait, please…I don't want to be alone tonight…"

Looking at her directly in the eyes he did not have the heart to turn her down, shutting the door completely and turning down the light settings he leaded Kate over to a large couch across the room, taking two of the pillows that were on the bed he sat on one side of the couch and let Katie take the majority of the couch for herself; the young driver half sat half laid next to Matt with her head leaning against his shoulders while she hugged a pillow and tucked her legs close to her on her side as Matt placed an arm around her shoulders to hold her.

The two remained like that for a few minutes before Matt finally noticed that Kate had finally managed to fall asleep but fearing waking her up now he decided to just stay in his place with her; for at least an hour he remained awake, keeping his eyes closed in hopes of getting some sleep himself, instead during that time he felt the young woman's body slightly tremble for a small bit in one or two occasions as if she were crying once again but she remained sleep still. If he had to hazard a guess he would say that she was crying in her sleep, if that wasn't a clear way of measuring truly how the past events had affected her then he didn't know what was…it wasn't even just KIFT's…off lining but everything that had happened since KIRA went missing, it just felt like this last hit was the last drop and she couldn't hold it in any longer.

For a while he tech kept drifting in and out of light sleep until eventually he too fell asleep for good and it wasn't until the late hours of the following morning that he was woken up by his phone where he had several messages from Noah, him and Skyla had been assigned to keep an eye over the younger of the two AIs, he was saying that she had just finished the reload and backup of her files and that her internal system had been fixed to be almost back to operating standards so now the AI was asking for Katie, with a sigh he said that they would be there in a few minutes but he still didn't feel like waking up Katie…she was probably going to wake up as soon as he got up anyway and maybe telling her that KIRA really wanted to see her would be a good enough incentive to get her to get out of the room again.

Slowly straightening himself up in place he gently shook Katie as he called her name, slowly she opened her eyes and shook off the drowsiness from sleep

"About time you got some decent sleep"

she yawned and stretched before slowly standing up "What time is it?"

"it's morning still, kind of a late morning. Got a message from Noah, he says KIRA's internal systems are almost back to working order and that she's been asking for you"

"okay…just give me a few minutes to get changed and I'll be ready"

"I'll be waiting just outside the room then"

in a matter of minutes the two were already making their way across the complex and over to the main repair bays where the IAs were being held for the time being, deep down Kate wasn't sure if she was going to be able to hide this from KIRA, if her systems were indeed almost back to her normal performance standards then it wouldn't be easy to hide something like this from her…she might just have to tell her about it after all…

once the two entered the room Noah, Skyla and Connor greeted them gladly, Skyla went straight for Katie and gave her a strong hug that she returned in the same way, Kate knew she knew what had happened and she guessed that the only reason why she hadn't seen Sydney around was because she too had formed quite an attachment to the other AI, Ryder was probably with her somewhere. It was hard to believe that despite the huge progress that KIRA's internal systems had made on the outside she still looked like she had gone through hell and somehow made it out…funny enough some would say that wasn't too far from the truth.

After greeting everyone she walked over to the front of the AI, her scanner had been completely fixed and it stood proudly lit up on the scratched and dented hood.

"Good morning Kate, I've been trying to talk to you for a few hours now"

"I know…I'm sorry I just wasn't feeling too good last night and I needed some sleep, that's all"

the scanner tracked back and forth a couple times before the AI spoke again "Katherine…are you sure you're okay?"

knowing that she couldn't keep anything from the AI she gave her friends a quick look and the three knew they had to leave the room, the door was closed leaving the two close friends on their own; Kate took a deep breath as she took a few steps closer to the AI and kneeled on the ground in front of her to be eye to 'eye' with the Mustang "KIRA there is…something important I have to tell you. KIFT-"

"I know Kate…that was why I wanted to talk to you"

"you know? How do you know about it?"

the brightness of the AI's scanner dropped and the pace at which it flowed too slowed down "the three of us have a permanent link that keeps us connected at all times, it's very faint but to a point it allows us to 'feel' each other, I didn't notice this before because most of my systems were still offline but it wasn't until early this morning that I realized that my connection to KIFT…was gone"

Kate placed a hand just above the scanner, the red light's intensity grew for a fraction of a second before settling back down to the previous lower setting "I'm so sorry KIRA…the techs, my mom, they did all they could and they tried everything in their power to find anything they could use to recover her but there aren't enough systems that aren't corrupted or heavily damaged that they could use"

"Don't apologize Kate…I know that your mother would do anything in her power to save her, the bond they had was that strong and a part of me already knew that this was going to happen, since we watched KARR deliver that last blast I was able to tell that much through that same connection. I believe I just didn't want to process that information when it happened, I still don't want to and a part of me is still not wanting to accept this fact…"

"I know how you feel, believe me"

despite still not being able to control much of herself the AI slightly leaned forwards into her driver's touch, deep down new emotions that she didn't know how to process were making themselves know and it created an internal conflict of thoughts and possibilities that for the time being she was able to only summarize it all in a single sentence…

"I miss her Kate…"

"I know…me too"

For the few days that followed the two remaining AIs remained under intensive repairs, by this time KIRA's internal systems were back working under optimal standards and most of her external damage had been repaired, currently she was allowed to remain back inside the main chamber while some of the components required to make a new protective covering to go over her Nano-skin arrived. KITT still remained at the intensive repair bay with techs coming and going almost 24/7 doing almost hourly system integrity checkups as the last bits of his core program were reinstalled and at this point it was becoming somewhat annoying to him, by now he had recovered most of his basic functions and he was slightly more aware of his physical surroundings; as he started regaining said functions he reached the one section that connected him with both KIRA and KIFT on a basic level, KIRA's signal was there and it was quite present but no matter how hard he reached out he couldn't get in contact with KIFT so naturally his first course of action was asking Mike about her but since his only current source of input still relied heavily on the basic text channel through a simple computer it took a little while for him to get Mike to answer, when he eventually did there was a long pause from his driver after he asked about KIFT, a pause that only confirmed his only fear.

After that day the older AI remained quiet for the most part, and that was something to say considering he was still not able to use his voice modulator. Mike had tried to start small conversations with him but he always ended up letting it die after seeing how it seemed useless, he didn't blame the Mustang, considering the situation he supposed it was only natural so just like Sarah it would see he would have to let him go through this at his own pace and only remain close for the two and offer his support to them.

Since KIRA was now allowed out into the main chamber and to roam around near the base the AI and her driver ended up most of the time going out and spending countless hours back at the spot where they used to go and watch the sunrise on occasions; Kate Sat outside the car resting her back against the it's front bumper, huddling into her jacket as the cool breeze of the approaching winter flew past the two of them. The sun was just starting to lower down into the horizon even though sunset was still a few hours away and the bright sunlight bounced off of the car's primer, bringing some life to the otherwise dull base cover that Katherine still couldn't get used to after seeing the AI wearing that beautiful metallic black and deep blue stripes her entire life, she hoped the missing components for the new Nano-skin would arrive fast so that they could give the Mustang her color back since she knew that KIRA herself didn't like the dullness of her current state.

Day after day as the weather grew colder and the trees started to change their color the two AIs got closer to being back to full strength and with each day that passed, not only them, but their drivers and closer workers and friends resented the loss of a fellow friend and family member; for some more so than others the effect of this loss went much further than just mere sadness and it created wounds that for some would require a long time to heal and for others they would simply always remain open. Even though it would seem that the group had hit rock bottom with the recent events when you hit the bottom there is only one way to go, there was still some hope amongst the chaos and sadness, hope that they would overcome this situation and do what was best…what was right to do by them…and her.

They will rise again and do what they do best, they would come back stronger than ever to defeat whatever comes their way and continue to make a difference, always make a difference and act for the greater good no matter what. They knew that HE had a tendency of coming back from the dead and when that happened, if it happened, they will be ready…they will be waiting…


	9. Author's note

First of all I want to thank to the people that have stuck through this LONG process and just bearing with my horrible time between chapters at times, thanks as well to the guest that was kind enough to leave a review and I'm glad you liked my story enough to read it through.

This is just a short Author's note as thanks and to inform you guys that the re-written version of the third and last story of this trilogy is already in process of being re-written and I hope to start posting it weekly during the summer (long wait, I know, but I do this so I can have enough time to either finish re-writing the whole thing of at least have enough done so that the weekly uploads don't get interrupted). this will be all from me for now, again thanks to everyone for for taking the time to read my work. hope everyone has a nice day.


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